





"'^^,^^^' *//' 






^./ 










o5 -^^^ 



'.a^^: 



// <■ 






v^ 



^ X' 



^ '■ %■ ,^ 



^ 









^",0^ 







'O , 



'i>^ 



ro^ 






* ff , 



.«^' 



',\^ 






<^°^. 












■^^ ,^^ 







^ - y 



~° *^ 



"/■ 




SALLIE SKETCHING IN THE DOVF-rOT. 



Three Vassar Girls 



In France 



A STORY OF THE SIEGE OF PARIS 



/BY 




ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY 



ILLUSTRATED BY "CHAMP" AND OTHERS 



9^) 



BOSTON 

ESTES AND LAURIAT, PUBLISHERS 

301-305 Washington Street 



Copyright, 1888, 
By Estes and Lauriat. 



All riMs reserved. 



THE LIBRARY 
or CONGRESS 

WASHIMGTON 



1 






^ 




CONTENTS. 



Chapter 

I. Mere Babette's Dove-cot n 

II. At Ferrieres ^4 

III. Clemence 30 

IV. Among the Prussians 5^ 

V. Harboring a Spy 74 

VI. At Versailles 92 

VII. Suspicious Circumstances 1^5 

VIII. Thanksgiving Day at the Maison Duval 131 

IX. The Red Cross and the Sortie ...,.-...•• 156 

X. Why the Sortie Failed ^79 

XI. A Sad Christmas-tide ^99 

XTI. The Bombardment and the Last Sortie • 215 

XIII. Peace and other Negotiations 226 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 
Sallie sketching in the dove-cot Frontispiece 

Initial ii 

The Luxembourg Gardens '3 

House of the Reine Blanche (Verdun) 15 

The War Correspondent 17 

Place de la Concorde 19 

Mr. Cholmondely Jones ...... 20 

Fountain in the Place de la Concorde . 21 

Mere Babette 22 

St. Sulpice 23 

" Past lovely landscapes, through the 

park gates " 25 

Mere Babette in the Park 27 

Ferriere, the Chateau of the Rothschilds 29 

Jean Roussel, a good Sharp-shooter . . 33 

Sallie 34 

Head-piece 36 

" The De Beaumonts, father and son " 37 

Clemence 38 

" The edge of the Forest of Fontaine- 

bleau." 41 

Alice's Portrait of Sallie 43 

Alice's Portrait of Melicent ..... 43 

" He cantered past the window "... 46 

The Little Trianon 48 

" The sentinel at the great gate " . . .' 52 

"The lake glittered in the sunshine" . 53 

The Little Model 54 

The Secretary 54 

Captain Miiller 55 

The Far-away Rhine 59 



Pagf 

At the Chateau 63 

The Fountain at Versailles . . . . 67 

" I ran after the carriage " 70 

Versailles the Splendid 71 

Tail-piece 73 

A Friend in Need 75 

" One of these stared at them as they 

passed " 79 

Madame Duval 81 

Clemence pouring Chocolate .... 83 

On Duty 85 

" It was a drum-corps of boys "... 87 

An Unwelcome Discovery 90 

Initial 92 

The Countess 94 

Ruins of St. Cloud 95 

Wounded Germans in the Park at Ver- 
sailles 99 

The Babe and the Bugbear . . . . loi 

Lieutenant Schwarz , 103 

St. Cloud after the Bombardment 105 

Jacques no 

Bassin d'Apollon in 

Initial . 115 

Prussian Prisoners 117 

Chiffon and Gourmet 120 

Alphonse relates his Suspicions . . . 121 

At Bourget 122 

Alice writes to Mere Babette . . . . 125 

An Investigating Committee .... 129 

At the Markets 132 



Vlll 



ILL USTRA TIONS. 



Page 

" Dogs were cheaper " 133 

Hot-House, Jardin des Plantes . . . 135 

" In front of the cages " 137 

M. de Beaumont 139 

Accoutrements 142 

Hussars reconnoitring 144 

Cascade in the Bois de Vincennes . . 147 

The Donjon of Vincennes 151 

En Avant 153 

The Red Cross 157 

The American Surgeon ...... 160 

Melicent rises to the Occasion . . . 162 

" Jean Roussel was stationed as a scout " 165 

The Attack on the Outpost ... 169 

Turcos lyt 

A Prussian Pipe 174 

AHce's Model 175 

Johanniter waiting for the Wounded . . 181 

The Miller's Boys 183 

A Sailor 186 



Page 

The Gamins burning Napoleon in Effigy 187 

The Crown Prince 191 

Clemence at the Fete 193 

On the Seine, — Bougival Bridge . . 195 

Within the City 201 

At Pierre's Cottage 203 

Waiting for the Confessor 204 

" It was pitiful to see the soldiers try to 

celebrate " 205 

"He talked philosophy " 208 

Inside a Siege Battery 211 

Bits of Armor, etc 216 

On the Ramparts 217 

The Last Sortie 219 

Prussian Drummer 227 

"The German tricolor at Valerien ' . . 231 

Madame sets out for Paris 234 

The Uhlans at the Arc de Triomphe . 235 

M. Bonivant before the Siege .... 238 

Tail-piece 240 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



Three Vassar Girls in France. 



A RECORD OF SOME INCIDENTS IN THE SIEGE OF PARIS. 



CHAPTER I. 



MERE BABETTE'S DOVE-COT. 



T was all owing to Mere Babette and the pigeons 
that Sallie was separated from her friends during 
the siege of Paris. , 

Mere Babette kept a dove-cot at Ferriere, and 
frequently came to Paris to sell her birds. It had 
been her habit to furnish the Duval restaurant on 
the Rue des Hirondelles with squabs, until Madame 
Duval conceived the economical plan of establish- 
ing a dove-cot of her own in the grenier of the old 
hotel whose lower floor was occupied by her restau- 
rant. It had been a fine house in its day, with a 
carved stone chimney-piece and a ceiling painted 
by Le Brun, or by one of his pupils, in the grand 
salon. The ceiling was a little smoky, the gilding 
chipped, but it still gave a stately air to Madame 's 
dining-room ; and old-fashioned gentlemen, like the Comte de Beau- 
mont, liked to look up from their thin wine at its faded splendors, 
and imagine themselves back in the old days, dining with Madame la 
Marquise. The fa9ade was attractive too, with its funny little dormer 
windows sprouting from the peaked roof, — unglazed windows which 




12 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

served as doors to the flocks of pigeons who made a nesting-place of 
the grenier, and fluttered down upon the balconies, or perched on the 
stone corbels carved to represent grotesque heads, which decorated 
the front. It was these heads which had at first attracted the girls ; 
the house had so evidently belonged to some member of the old 
noblesse. As Sallie said, " It had an air of mediaeval gentility, and of 
having been on calling terms with the Cluny Palace and the house 
of the Reine Blanche in Verdun." Its convenient neighborhood to 
the Cluny and the Luxembourg, where the girls loved to work, and to 
the Luxembourg Gardens, a favorite haunt of Mrs. Davenport, was an- 
other reason why, when our party ascertained that the best apartment 
au premier (second floor), which contained the carved chimney-piece, 
was to let furnished, and that there was also a studio up in the roof 
just under the dove-cot, the more expensive suite was immediately 
engaged by Mrs. Davenport for herself and daughter, and the little 
studio by the two art students. Mrs. Davenport, though wealthy, did 
not care greatly to live in the fashionable American Quarter. Much 
society wearied her, and she was strangely lacking in the ambition 
supposed to be universal among American mammas, — that of marry- 
ing her daughter into the nobility. Melicent Davenport would have 
enjoyed a less quiet existence ; but she was sweet-tempered and yield- 
ing, and the only member of the party who really objected to the 
Latin Quarter as a residence was Alphonse. Alphonse was Mrs. 
Davenport's footman, and a very magnificent creature in his silk hat 
and long coat of coachman's drab. Few princes of the blood can 
boast an air so distingiie. It afflicted him that Mrs. Davenport would 
not have a crest on the door of her coupe; and it was a matter of 
intense mortification to him to sit on the box of that coupe before 
the door of the Duval restaurant, waiting for his mistress to descend. 
He was certain that the cobble-stones of the Latin Quarter would 
ruin the carriage springs, and that Madame would be thought eccen- 
tric for not choosing to live on the Avenue de I'lmperatrice. 



MkRE B A BETTERS DOVE-COT. 



13 



The feelings of Alphonse were not consulted, and the rest of the 
party found no reason to regret their choice. The three girls made 
Mrs. Davenport's salon \^xy attractive by draping her India shawls as 




THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS. 



portieres, covering the walls with their sketches, and arranging the 
hot-house flowers, which Mrs. Davenport had sent in every morning, 
in the Venetian glass vases on her pretty tables of Florentine mosaic 
and ormolu. 

They were three Vassar girls of the Class of '69, — Mellcent Dav- 



14 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

enport, daughter of a New York railroad magnate, Alice Newton, of 
a New Haven professor, and Sallie Benton of a Kansas City lawyer. 
They were all nominally under the chaperonage of Mrs. Davenport ; 
but Sallie had inherited so much of her father's pluck and enterprise, 
and Alice so much of New England principle and nobility of purpose, 
,that they were quite sufficient for their own guidance. Alice and 
Sallie were enthusiastic art students, and as such, sworn worshippers 
of Beauty. Melicent was beauty itself. Naturally, she had other wor- 
shippers than her two classmates, who had each painted her in various 
characters. There was the American war correspondent, Mr. James 
Osborn, who had an inexpensive room in the rear, just under the stu- 
dio and next to one occupied by Alphonse, — a room so small that it 
seemed impossible for it to contain other furniture than the arm-chair 
and great desk at which he seemed always to be writing. Sallie was 
sure that the desk let down at night into a bedstead, for otherwise Mr. 
Osborn would have to sleep in his chair ; but Alice was of the opinion 
that he never did sleep, but spent the night in prowling for the news 
which he wrote out for the papers during the day. He always ap- 
peared to write with his door open into the passage, and this the girls 
thought was because 'his room was so small that the open door gave 
him more air and a sensation of greater space ; whereas the real reason 
was that he liked to see Melicent pass. He fiew to open his door as 
soon as he heard that of the studio open on the floor above, and closed 
it when the girls had gone by. They never suspected this, for he was 
always sitting with his back to them as they glanced in, apparently 
scribbling away for dear life, for he was as bashful a man as could well 
be found ; but he had' cunningly arranged a little shaving-glass in front 
of him so that it reflected all passers-by, and his big heart gave an ab- 
surd flutter as he noticed that Melicent cast a sidelong glance of curi- 
osity in his direction. Madame Duval told them one curious thing 
about him, — he was very fond of pigeons. It was on this account that 
he had taken up lodgings with her, and he had her permission to go 



M^RE B A BETTERS DOVE-COT. 



17 



into the grenier whenever he pleased, to feed and pet them. He had 
even introduced a cage containing a number of his own, — a very rare 
kind sent him all the way from Dieppe, — and he had purchased some 
of hers to send in exchange to his friend, the pigeon-fancier at 
Dieppe. 

Later, when they became acquainted with Mr. Osborn, — and even 
a modest lover will find means of making the acquaintance of the 
lady of his aspirations when they live 
under the same roof, — he confided to 
the girls, during a visit which he made 
to the grenier to view his pets, the rea- 
son of his interest in pigeons. 

" Paris will soon be in a state of 
siege," he said, " and all mail 



CS 




and telegraph communica- 
tion will be cut off. I must 
have some means of get- 
ting my letters to the Eng- 
lish and American newspa- 
pers. I shall have these let- 
ters reduced in size by micro- 
photography, and shall use 
carrier pigeons. Those birds 
of Madame Duval which I 
sent to my friend in Dieppe 
will, when let loose, fly di- 
rectly here, and my friend 

will send me by them news of everythmg important which is going 
on in the outside world ; while my friend's pigeons will take my letters 
to Dieppe, and he will mail them to their destination." 

" What a clever idea ! " Melicent exclaimed. " And that is the 
reason you keep those poor birds imprisoned ; I used to wonder you 



THE WAR CORRESPONDENT. 



1 8 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

did not allow them their liberty like the others. But why have you 
had this great cage made ? It is quite empty." 

" Ah, that is another little scheme," he replied, smiling. " Madame 
Duval told me that she bought her pigeons of an old woman who 
keeps a dove-cot at Ferriere, and that the birds are perpetually 
troubling her by flying back and forward. Now, at Ferriere is Baron 
Rothschild's beautiful chateau, and that is sure to be chosen as 
one of the headquarters of the Prussians. Perhaps Bismarck himself 
may take up his residence there ; and it will be a good thing to have 
means of communication with that place. I have sent word to Mere 
Babette, the aforesaid dealer in pigeons, that I would like a score or 
so of her birds, and I shall get her to take back a hamper of Madame 
Duval's and keep them at my service. You see, when the siege is 
once in effect General Trochu will be glad to pay me a good sum for 
the use of my ornithological post-ofifice, for keeping up communication 
with the spies which he doubtless has at the Prussian headquarters." 

" I am sure, Mr. Osborn," said Sallie, " that you place a great 
deal of confidence in us, in being willing to tell us your plans ; and 
we will show you in return that women can keep a secret." 

Mr, Osborn bowed. His explanations had been directed to Meli- 
cent; and he had been so absorbed in pouring them into her ear that 
he had not noticed that the other girls had come in from the little 
balcony where they had stepped to see the fine view of Paris, and were 
listening intently. 

" It seems so unreal," Alice remarked, as they descended the stair- 
case, " that war is really impending. Paris was as gay as ever yes- 
terday. It was the fete of somebody or other, and everybody was out 
on the boulevards, looking as smiling and happy as possible. Several 
regiments of the National Guards marched through the streets, but 
they all looked, in their new uniforms, as if they had come out of 
bandboxes. I cannot imagine their ever really fighting. The military 
bands played the gayest of opera music, and the soldiers had bouquets 



MkRE B ABETTERS DOVE-COT. 



19 



stuck in the muzzles of their muskets instead of bayonets. They 
marched around to the Place de la Concorde/ and deposited the flowers 
before the statue of Strasburg; but it was more like a pretty effect 
in a play than anything else. Every one seems to think that even 




lj=.j u IS 




PLACE DE LA CONCORDE. 



Strasburg is in no real danger. I don't believe we shall have actual 
war here ; if I did, I should advise Melicent to take her mother over 

> " In 1830 the pavilions of the Place de la Concorde were surmounted by twelve allegori- 
cal statues representing- the twelve chief cities of France." Only one of these statues is shown 
at the right of our illustration. The obelisk of Luxor occupies the centre of the " Place," and 
two beautiful fountains rise on either side of it. 



20 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



to England. Sallie and I would stay in any event ; we don't intend 
to interrupt our art studies for such a trifling consideration." 

" I fear," Mr. Osborn replied, " that there will be real war right here, 
and it is my duty to advise you to leave the city." He looked relieved, 
however, when the girls slighted his advice. Mrs. Davenport was 
sure it would all end with a treaty or a capitulation. She went very 
little into society, and as she did not understand French and never 
read the newspapers, she was not affected by the panic about her. 

Melicent in her secret heart hoped something 
exciting would happen, something which would 
be an experience to talk about in after life. 
They were all foreigners, she argued, and there 
could be no danger to them whichever side 
won ; so Mr. Cholmondely Jones, the dapper lit- 
tle attache to the British Legation had told her 
at the ball given by the American Minister, — 
the first which she had attended that season. 
He had said much more : that he would furnish 
her with the protection of the entire British 
nation, so to speak; would provide her with 
any number of papers signed by most distinguished M. P.'s, — names 
which every Prussian must respect ; that he would instantly report to 
Lord Granville if the least inconvenience was experienced by any of 
their party; and that such an event would probably bring on hostilities 
between England and Prussia. How could Melicent feel otherwise 
than perfectly secure, — especially as young Jules de Beaumont, who 
with his father dined at the next table to their own, and was a mem- 
ber of the National Guards, promised that his company should stand 
sentinel, night and day, in front of their hotel, if there was any danger 
whatever. 

One lovely day in September Mere Babette came with the pigeons. 
Sallie held some conversation with her, and ran up to the little studio. 




MR. CHOLMONDELY JONES. 



M£RE B a betters DOVE-COT. 



21 



" Girls ! " she exclaimed, " from what Madame Duval says, this 
Mere Babette's dove-cot is very picturesque; I believe it is just the 
thing for my Salon picture. You know I decided I wanted to paint 
that little model, — Clemence feeding Pigeons. I can use Madame 
Duval's birds here, but I want some sketches for backgrounds. The 




FOUNTAIN IN THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE. 



guide-book says that it is lovely at Ferriere, and I am going down for 
a few days. Mere Babette says I can have a room in her cottage." 

"But, Sallie," suggested Alice, "is it quite prudent to go to the 
country now that the Prussians are so near } " 



22 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



" Nonsense ! they may not be here for months ; but if all these 
rumors are true, and we are to be shut up for a siege, why, there is 
all the more reason for going into the fields while we can, and making 
these out-of-door sketches which we shall want so much by-and-by." 

" I do not believe you will be comfort- 
able at Mere Babette's," said Melicent. 

" Oh, yes, I shall. When I asked her 
if I could obtain a room at the hotel, she 
said I could have a much better one with 
her, — one which has been kept vacant for 
two years, since her daughter ran away. 
The old woman spoke so touchingly of this 
daughter, that I want to learn the entire 
story, and that is another reason for going. 
I am perfectly certain that Mere Babette 
is a good old soul, and I will tell you why. 
While she was waiting for Mr. Osborne 
to come in she went over to St. Sulpice, 
and I followed her, for I was curious to 
see what she was going to do there ; and, 
ofirls, she knelt for a longr time on one 
of those queer little chairs, and while she 
told her beads real tears trickled down her withered old face. Then 
when she had finished she tottered over to the alms-box and put in 
the greatest lot of sous, — I thought she would never have done." 

" Mother will not think it proper for you to go without a dragon. 
She will make you take Mathilde," Melicent objected for the last 
time. 

"Very well," Sallie replied, with alacrity. " I '11 take Mathilde, and 
pay all her expenses; she's the most endurable lady's-maid I ever saw, 
and will enjoy the outing. But do you suppose your mother can 
spare her? I shall want to be gone at least three days." 




MfeRE BABETTE. 



MkRE BABETTE'S DOVE-COT. 




ii,i!] 



ra,F|fiaDi[5Tis- 






ST. SULPICE. 



Mrs. Davenport assured Sallie that she would not need her maid 
for that length of time ; and Sallie left the next morning for her little 
excursion. Mathilde carried the sketch-box, lunch-basket, and a shawl- 
strap, but they had no other baggage ; for Sallie faithfully promised 
to be back before Sunday. 



CHAPTER II. 




AT FERRIERES. 

SHORT journey by rail brought Sallie to the 
station of Ozouer la Ferriere. There were 
very few passengers, as the travel seemed to be 
in the opposite direction, and no one else in 
her compartment. Sallie and Mathilde inter- 
ested themselves in taking note of the various 
preparations for the siege. They had passed 
several new lines of defences and encampments 
of Mobiles, as the peasant soldiery were called. 
Sturdy fellows they were, with a determined, 
patriotic air; and Sallie felt she would rather trust them than the 
Nationaux, who were composed for the most part of Parisian shop- 
keepers, knights of the yardstick, v/hose entire mental effort seemed 
concentrated in the waxing of their mustaches. 

Droves of beeves were waiting at the different stations to be taken 
into Paris. The victualling of the capital appeared to be well pro- 
vided for. But in spite of these warlike preparations it was difficult 
to believe that three hundred thousand Prussians were bearing down 
upon the devoted city. 

An omnibus was waiting at the station, which conveyed our 
tourists through the village, past lovely landscapes, through the park 
gates ; for Mere Babette's dove-cot was one of the buildings on a 
farm belonging to the Rothschild estate. 



Sallie had an opportunity 




■••'^#; 



PAST LOVELY LANDSCAPES, THROUGH THE PARK GATES.' 



A T FERRIERES. 



The guide- 



of viewing the exterior of the great chateau which Baron Rothschild 
has built on the site of an old castle of the Montiuorencv's. 
book told iier that the archi- 
tecture was in bad taste; but 
for all that, it had an imposing 
effect quite in harmony with 
the great banker's fortunes, 
and she could readily believe 
the driver when he told her 
that besides the part of the 
building reserved for the family, 
the chateau contained " eighty 
complete suites of apartments 
for as many guests, and stables 
for one hundred horses." 

" How delightful to be able 
to dispense such princely hos- 
pitality ! " Sallie murmured ; 
and then she thought of sim- 
ple Matthew Vassar, wath his 
three hundred guest-rooms, and 
added, " but I have been for 
four years the guest of an Amer- 
ican who entertained more roy- 
ally than that." 

" It would be a pity," the 
driver remarked, "if the Prus- 
sians were to burn that fine 
chateau." 

" Money is a defence," Sal- 
lie replied thoughtfully. " The Rothschilds have business relations 
with Germany, and I do not think the chateau will be injured." 




MERE BABETTE IN THE PARK. 



28 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

Passing the park, the driver paused at a little wood. "If you follow 
this footpath," he said, " you will come out at the colombier'' 

It was pleasant to feel the yielding soil beneath their feet after 
the asphalt pavements of Paris. Birds were singing in the greenery, 
and the fresh woodsy odors intoxicated Sallie with delight. Presently 
they saw Mere Babette coming to meet them. She leaned on a stick, 
and looked older and more infirm than she had done in the church ; 
but she was glad to see her guests, and welcomed them heartily, lead- 
ing them to the picturesque dove-cot. (See Frontispiece.) 

Sallie clapped her hands with pleasure as soon as she caught sight 
of it; but when Mere Babette led her up the crooked stairway into 
what had been her daughter's bedroom, she was still more delighted. 
The bed was hung with faded pink chintz. The light sifted in 
through small windows filled with diamond-shaped panes of bottle- 
green glass ; some scarlet geraniums seemed to be thriving in this 
unnatural light, and added a vivid spot of color to the room. The 
floor was tiled, and there was a queer little corner fireplace, and a 
mantel with a lambrequin consisting of a rag of old tapestry, a lion 
rampant indistinctly boxing at two much-mended griffins. On the 
mantel was a barber's basin in the milky blue-and-white pottery of 
Lille, and a brass candlestick ; over it hung a gaudy picture of the 
Virgin. One handsome old arm-chair, the upholstery in tatters and the 
wood-work at one time gilded, stood in front of the fireplace, and an 
armoire (wardrobe) of the same period, with Boucher landscapes show- 
ing vaguely through the cracked varnish, stood against the wall. 

Sallie remarked on these stately pieces of furniture, which were 
not at all in keeping with the flag chairs and other simple appoint- 
ments of the room. 

" My daughter Clemence earned them," Mere Babette explained, 
" the first summer after she went to work at the De Beaumont villa, 
near Versailles. My brother Pierre is one of the under-gardeners 
there, and he oot her the situation. It was the summer after Mon- 



AT FERRl£:i?ES. 3 1 

sieur le Comte received his decoration. No one knows what he 
ever did to deserve it ; but all the same he is Chevalier de la Le- 
gion d'Honneur. Madame la Comtesse was so proud that she re- 
furnished the villa from cellar to grenier to prepare it for a fete 
which the Empress attended in person, and after that there was no 
speaking to her. The ver}^ best of the old furniture was kept ; a great 
deal of it, however, was sold privately, and my daughter bought that 
chair and armoire. She was always fond of fine things, and of makino- 
beheve that she was a lady; and sometiines I feel like taking an axe 
and splitting up that furniture and burning it, for I fancy that it 
helped make her discontented with our simple way of living; but 
when that fit comes on me I go into the cellar and beat myself until 
I am in a more Christian spirit, and tlie hope returns to my heart 
that she will yet come back and prove all my fears to have been 
groundless ; and then, you see, she would feel so disappointed to find 
that the few things by which she set such store had been destroyed. 
After all, it was the people more than the things that made her dis- 
contented. Madame was too scornful and her son was too kind, 
and between the two my poor daughter went up and down as one 
does on one of those long tilts at the fetes, till she did not rightly 
know what her station was, and her head was dizzy. 

" Jules de Beaumont admired her and was very kind to her, and 
this vexed Madame his mother greatly, and it vexed Jean Roussel too. 
When she disappeared it happened in this way. Madame had given 
her leave to spend her Sundays at home, and one Sunday she did not 
come. I waited all day, thinking something had detained her at the 
villa; but at dinner-time Jean Roussel dropped in to see if he could 
get her to dance with him at the fete that evening. Jean Roussel was 
the butcher's boy then ; he has joined the Mobiles now. And Jean 
looked so unhappy when he learned that she had not come, that I said 
I would go to Versailles with him and see what was the matter. Well, 
when we got there the housekeeper told us that she had started for 



32 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

home the evening before. I was frightened, and I demanded to see 
Madame la Comtesse ; she came down, and I suppose I talked wildly, 
for I remember she told me that she would take no notice of what 
I said, for she believed m)^ anxiety had taken away my reason. Jean 
Roussel asked for Monsieur Jules, and his mother said that he knew 
nothing of the matter, for he was with his father in Paris. Then Jean 
said that he would go to Paris too, and never cease his search until 
he found her. But he never succeeded, poor fellow, and he joined 
the Mobiles among the first, and I know he will make a good franc- 
tireur (sharp-shooter), for he knows the forests all around Paris ; he 
was a bit of a poacher as a lad, and a good shot. He could shoot 
a squirrel in the highest tree, or a swallow on the chimney of the 
chateau. Sometimes I think it is a good thing that war was declared, 
for it has o-iven him somethino- else to think about. If we women 
could only go to war, it would be better for us." 

"And have you ever seen Jules de Beaumont since?" 

" Oh, yes ; he came to see me as soon as he returned from Paris, 
and I saw in two minutes that his mother was right, — he did not 
know' where my child had gone, for he was as crazy as Jean Roussel. 
' I swear to you by the Virgin, Mere Babette,' he said, ' that things are 
not as you think. I loved Clemence, and I am not ashamed to say so; 
but she knew that my mother would never consent to our marriage, 
and she has run away to get rid of me.' . He looked so earnest that 
I believed him, and I believe in him still, though there are some of 
my neighbors who call me an old fool for my simplicity." 

" And have you never heard from Clemence?" 

" Yes ; a letter came from her with a Paris postmark. It begged 
me not to be worried about her, — as though I could help that, — for 
she had run away just as so many boys go, to make her own fortune 
and mine ; and that what she was doing was honest work, and she 
would come back to me when she heard that Monsieur Jules was mar- 
ried, for she knew that she would not be safe, even vv'ith me, if he knew 



AT FEIiRI^RES. 



where she was, until he had forgotten about her; for — and this she 
begged me to tell no one, and I have kept her secret until now — 
she cared for him as much as he did 
for her." 

" Poor child ! " exclaimed Sallie ; " if 
she had only told you where she had 
gone, so that you could see her some- 
times and need not be anxious about 
her." 

" Ah, yes ! but girls do not think 
how much their mothers love them. 
Sometimes I think that trouble makes 
people selfish ; it makes them blind, at 
any rate, to the trouble they inflict on 
others." 

" Probably she thought that you 
would be sure to show by your happy 
manner that you knew where she was, 
and then Jules de Beaumont would have 
you watched and find out too," said 
Sallie, seeking to excuse her. 

" Perhaps," Mere Babette replied in 
a hopeless tone. " He swore that he 
would find her, just as Jean Roussel did, 

and it is the terror of my dreams that he may succeed. Then there 
come days when I say to myself, ' Tiejtsf a man's affection does not 
last forever; he will soon be married, and she will come home and 
everything will be cleared up ; ' and at those times no money would 
purchase that old armoire or the chair from me. Then again the fury 
seizes me, and I say, ' Ah, yes ! the neighbors are right ; it is all a 
plot between them. Since he has eyes that can deceive you, you old 
fool Babette, what wonder that he could deceive your daughter.? ' But 

3 




JEAN ROUSSEL, A GOOD SHARP- 
SHOOTER. 



34 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



it is well that the National Guard does not often meet the Mobiles, 
for he could not deceive jean Roussel There 's many a shot in war 
that goes the wrong way ; and I fear that if they were on the battle- 
field together, Jean might mistake him for a Prussian, in spite of his 
fine uniform." 

Mere Babette opened the armoire and hung Sallies ulster and hat 
therein. Sallie noticed that there were several of her daughter's 

dresses still hanging there, and that one was 
a pink cambric trimmed with rufHes. 

" That was her fete dress," Mere Babette 
said. " She always kept it at home, and it 
was in that dress that Jean Roussel hoped to 
dance with her that Sunday evening. But, 
'^ Sainte Vierge ! how I have been gossip- 
ing away, and it is time that you had your 
dinner." 

The good soul hurried downstairs, and 
left Sallie seated in the same attitude in 
which she had listened to her recital, deeply 
buried in thought. Should she tell Mere 
Babette that she also knew Jules de Beau- 
mont of the Garde National, and that his 
frank, prepossessing appearance had made 
a favorable impression on the little American colony at the Maison 
Duval ? Should she tell her that le Comte de Beaumont had con- 
fided to Mrs. Davenport that now the nobility of France were so dis- 
oro-anized by the fall of the Empire, he preferred that his son should 
not entangle or compromise himself pohtically by an alliance with 
any of the n'oble houses of France, but would favor his forming a 
foreign marriage, and would even consent to his leaving the country 
until these troublous times were over ? This, with certain inquiries 
into the amount of dowry which each of the young American ladies 




SALLIE. 



AT ferri£:res. 35 

was to receive, made the Count's intentions sufficiently clear, and 
had greatly amused the girls ; especially as young Jules (as they fan- 
cied on account of his father's failure to obtain any definite figures 
in answer to his inquiries) had been perfectly impartial in the atten- 
tions which he paid in company with his father to all the young ladies 
on Mrs. Davenport's " at home " afternoon. 

On reflection, Sahie concluded that it was not necessary to men- 
tion to Mere Babette her acquaintance with the De Beaumonts. She 
was not so sure, however, as to her duty in regard to reporting this 
story to Mrs. Davenport and her girl friends. She finally decided 
that she must tell them, but that it would be a great deal easier to talk 
it all out than to write it. She rose from her reverie and called her- 
self abruptly back to the present, for Mathilde had entered the room 
to tell her that dinner was ready. 






A..:^. 










CHAPTER III. 



CLEMENCE. 

ir^HILE Sallie Benton was at Mere Babette's 
dove-cot, Alice Newton was quietly painting, 
in their little studio at the Maison Duval, 
from their favorite model, little Clemence. 
The Americans had become accustomed to 
the military atmosphere, to the street pa- 
rades, to the sensational reports in the papers, 
to the patriotic songs which every one sang 

so enthusiastically, " Mourir pour la Patrie " and, more inspiring still, 

Beranger's — 

" Ouoi ! ces monuments cheris, 
Histoire 
De notre gloire 
S'ecrouleraient en ddbris ? 




CLEMENCE. 



37 



Quoi ! les Prussiens a Paris ! 
Gai ! gai I seront nos rangs ; 
Esperance 
De la France ! " 



It was not that they actually discredited everything which they 
heard, but they had come to think, " These French are a very ex- 
citable people ; they exaggerate everything. The war will all end on 
paper." And the morning of the i8th of September the news that the 
Prussians were really on the ground and the siege begun, had not 
reached the Rue des Hirondelles; and its habitues took their late 
breakfast with their customary calm or gayety. The De Beaumonts, 
father and son, occupied their accustomed seats, and it was the last 
time that the girls saw the latter in citizen's dress. After that day 
they came to re- 
gard his brilliant 
cuirassier uniform, 
with its flashing 
steel breastplate, 
and helmet with 
horsetail crest (the 
last relic of knightly 
armor in modern 
warfare), as essen- 
tial a part of the 
young man him- 
self as the gor- 
geous plumage of the peacock is of that proud bird. 

Mrs. Davenport had a headache and kept her room, and Melicent 
spent the day in the studio with Alice. She liked to be there on the 
days when Clemence posed ; she had said that the girl was as amusing 
as one of Daudet's provincial stories, and opened up an entirely new 
life for her consideration. Clemence had posed for the girls first at 




THE DE BEAUMONTS, FATHER AND SON.' 



38 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



the portrait class, and they had asked her address from their master, 
and engaged her to come to their own rooms twice a week, when the 

class had been broken up by the gen- 
eral exodus from Paris of the foreign 
art students. 

Clemence was very pretty this after- 
noon, in her peasant costume with its 
black velvet bodice, white sleeves, and 
jaunty cap ; but there was a troubled 
look in her face, and a quiver to the 
rosebud mouth which was not usual, 
for she generally amused them with 
gay little songs and stories. 

" What is the matter to-day? " Alice 
asked kindly. 

" They tell me that the Prussians are 
coming," Clemence replied in French, 
" and that they will kill every one." 

" Don't be a little coward," Melicent 
remarked cheerfully, looking up from 
the book she was reading. 

" It is not for myself," Clemence re- 
plied, "surely I am safe here in Paris; 
but I have an old mother in the coun- 
try, and I cannot bear to think of her 
exposed to the fury of these monsters." 

Melicent laughed lightly. " They can have no possible motive 
for injuring an old woman," she said. " These Prussians are not 
cannibals." 

" But how frightened she will be," Clemence persisted. 
" Then," said Alice, who was always more disposed to sympathize 
than Melicent, " why don't you send for your mother to come to Paris } " 




CLEMENCE. 



CLEMENCE. 



39 



Clemence looked still more distressed. '' Ah, Mademoiselle, I 
have thought of that ; but since the sittings for the class have ceased, 
I have only my engagements to pose for you, and I fear that when the 
high prices begin I shall not be able to support her." 

" Do you mean to say," Melicent asked in surprise, "that you sup- 
port yourself on four francs a week t " 

" Not entirely, Mademoiselle. I do work enough for our con- 
cierge to pay for the rent of the little room which I share with my 
friend Lizzette, who is a glove-maker and gets a large salary, — ten 
frahcs a week ! " 

" Immense ! " Melicent remarked, much amused. 

" Is it not ? But that will probably cease soon, for the estab- 
lishment will not keep on making gloves if there is no chance of 
exporting them." 

" How did you come to be a model } " Melicent asked after a 
pause. 

" I was housemaid for a family who lived at Versailles, and 
Madame had a painting of the Blessed Virgin hung in her oratoire, 
and one day I was in great trouble, and I was making my prayers 
before it, and Madame's hairdresser saw me and laughed at me. 
' You need not pray to that demoiselle,' she said, ' for I know her 
very well in Paris, and I can tell you she is no saint.' I was bewil- 
dered by what she said. ' The Sainte Vierge in Paris! ' I said ; and then 
the hairdresser told me that the pictures of the Madonna were not 
all painted directly from her by the Apostle Luke, as I had always 
supposed, but were manufactured by artists out of their own imagi- 
nations, and that sometimes they gave good-looking girls money 
for sitting to them. All this was new to me and very interesting, 
for the girl went on to say, ' You could make your fortune in Paris, 
for you have the face of a Madonna yourself;' and I had my own 
reasons for wanting to go away to Paris. I said nothing more at 
that time ; but one day as I was on the way home to visit my mother, 



40 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

I stopped at a little inn at the village of Barbizon on the edge of 
the forest of Fontainebleau. It is a great resort of artists, and they 
have painted pictures on the wall all around the cafe. It was not 
the shortest way home ; but our gardener had business in Fontaine- 
bleau, and he had offered to take me so far in his cart, and I was 
to go on to Ferrieres by train. So, being left at the little inn, and 
having plenty of time, I thought I would take a cup of cafe au laii, 
for I had started very early in the morning. While I was refresh- 
ing myself, an artist came in very angry, for a model whom he had 
engaged had disappointed him ; and he had his canvas and sketch- 
ing umbrella and all his other tools strapped together ready to go 
out into the forest to finish a picture which he was preparing for 
the Salon. 'A la bonne heure!'' he exclaimed when he saw me; 
' this girl is exactly mon affaire' And then he asked me if I was a 
model, and when I said no, declared it was no matter, he was glad 
to get a fresh face that no other artist had painted, and offered me 
three francs if I would sit for the lady in his picture. Well, that 
was a good deal of money, and I thought, ' Here is an opportunity 
for me to see how I like this kind of business ; and if I do not 
like it there is still no harm done, for I can take my three francs 
and go on to my mother.' But I found that I liked it very well, 
for I had nothing whatever to do but to sit still, and that was 
exactly what I never found time to do at the villa, for the house- 
keeper kept me running all day long until my feet ached so that 
I would cry half the night with weariness. So I sat as still as I 
could, and when the day was over, the artist, who was no other 

than Professor , asked me how I would like to go to Paris and 

pose for his class of young ladies. I saw that he had a good 
face, I trusted it, and I told him that I would go ; so it turned 
out that instead of going to Ferrieres that night, I took the train 

to Paris instead. Professor took me to the concierge of the 

building where I live, told her my story, and asked her to make 
















TV 



'^^itf 






THE EDGE OF THE FOREST OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 



CLEMENCE. 



43 



me acquainted with some honest girl ; so the concierge introduced 
me to Lizzette ; and that is the whole story." 

"No, not the whole," Melicent said; "you have said that you 
had a particular reason for wishing to leave 
Versailles. What was it ? " 

Clemence flushed a little and drew her- 
self up proudly. " That, Mademoiselle, I 
shall not tell you." 

Melicent comprehended that she had in- 
truded where she had no right. " I beg 
your pardon," she said quickly. She prided 
herself on never committing an unladylike 
action, and she felt mortified and awk- 
ward. 

Presently she rose, and saying that she 
must see whether her mother needed any- 




alice's portrait of sallie. 




Alice's portrait of melicent. 
of a sentiment of her own. 



thing, she left the studio. Alice 
painted on in silence for a time; she, 
too, was eager to know Clemence's 
entire history, but her interest came 
from warm sympathy, and not from 
curiosity. Alice overflowed with a 
loving imagination, and was always 
putting herself in the place of others, 
and suffering with their trials and 
rejoicing in their joys. Melicent said 
that Alice frequently suffered more 
intensely than the people whom she 
pitied ; and this was quite true. Some- 
thino- of the girl's nature showed it- 
self in her art, which was always full 
She had painted a portrait of Sallie in a 



44 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

great Rembrandt hat adorned with a flamingo breast, which SalHe 
usually wore in a very saucy position on her independent little 
head ; but she had so arranged her attitude, and above all had so 
subdued the face by a lovely, wistful expression, which was entirely 
foreign to Sallie's nature, but was rather a reflection of her own, 
that Jules de Beaumont, recognizing the fidelity with which the 
shape of every feature was rendered, but puzzled by the unfamiliar 
expression, said, paradoxically but very truly, that it was a perfect 
likeness, but he never would have known it was Sallie. 

Sometimes she brought to the surface hidden traits which really 
existed, as when she painted Melicent as " My Lady Disdain," in a 
green velvet costume which would have befitted a Doge's daughter. 
Melicent's admirers, during the first stage of their acquaintance, all 
declared that such scorn was entirely foreign to her nature ; but as 
their own presumption received its just reward, wished that they had 
earlier recognized the faithfulness of the portrait. 

After Melicent had left the studio, Alice went on weaving to 
herself a little romance about Clemence, until suddenly looking up 
she saw that the girl's eyes were full of tears. She dropped her 
palette, ran to her, and put her arms about her. " It is the old 
mother, is it not } You are sorry that you ran away without tell- 
ing her." 

Clemence nodded ; she was sobbing too violently to speak. 

"Yes, it was thoughtless," Alice went on, "and that word contains 
our excuse as well as our crime ; you never dreamed then what pain 
you were putting her to. Now, don't pose a minute longer, but take 
this money and go right home to her. Then if she thinks best to 
come back with you to Paris, we will see that you do not starve 
durino- the siesfe." 

Clemence dried her eyes, and with many thanks hurried away. 
Alice painted on mechanically for a few moments, and then exclaimed, 
" How stupid of me ! She said her mother lived at Ferrieres, and that 



CLEMENCE. ^e 

is just where Sallie has gone. It can't be — yes, Sallie said she had 
lost a daughter. It is — it must be — Mere Babette ! " 

At dinner she was telling her story to Mrs. Davenport and Melicent, 
and did not at first notice that there was more excitement than usual 
at the little tables. Jules de Beaumont came in hurriedly in full uni- 
form, and spoke for a few moments to his father, who was already at 
table, and who laid down his " Figaro " to listen to him. 

Melicent touched Alice's elbow. " What a poseur he is ! " she 
whispered; for Jules had always seemed to her one of the military 
coxcombs which an English writer has so well caricatured in the 
" Rhenish Frontier " : — 

" As I stroll at my ease down the gay Boulevard, 
I seem to civilians a luminous star. 
I hear people say, for I listen, you know, 
' Regardez ce brave-ci, n'est-ce pas qu'il est beau ! ' 
. And they pat me, and treat me to ices and beer. 
Vive les armes ! Vive la guerre ! 
Vive — the Rhenish frontier ! " 

The young man was undoubtedly vain of his uniform, but he was 
shy as well. He would spend an hour or two in getting himself up 
for inspection, and another half-hour in screwing his courage to the 
point of presenting himself, in all his splendor, before the merry 
dancing eyes of those American girls. But on this evening he ap- 
proached their table, his helmet on his arm, with an earnest look from 
which all self-consciousness had vanished. 

" Madame Davenport," he began, " is it possible that Mademoiselle 
Benton has not returned from her sketching tour? "' 

" We do not expect her," replied Mrs. Davenport, " until to-morrow." 

" But, Madame, the Prussians are here. Uhlans have been seen 
by refugees from the environs ; they report Count Bismarck at Meaux, 
and say there is a division of Prussians near Vincennes. I fear she is. 
already cut off from you." 

Mrs. Davenport turned very pale, and placed her hand on her heart 



46 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



" These are certainly only rumors," Melicent exclaimed, rising to 
the occasion, 

" I fear it is quite true," said M. le Comte, joining the group. 
"Will you telegraph her, for us, to return at once?" asked Mrs. 
Davenport, at the same time writing rapidly. 

" I will take the telegram," said Jules, 
" and I trust it is not too late." A mo- 
ment later, and he cantered past the win- 
dow like a knight of old, Alice thought, 



going forth in the service of distressed 
ladies. 

His father took a seat beside them. 
" Let us have a little council of war," he 
said, with a reassuring smile. " Let us 
for a moment suppose the worst, and that 
Mademoiselle is separated from you. It 
is not a pleasant situation for a young 
girl ; mais, enfin. Mademoiselle Sallie is 
a young lady of resources, like all Ameri- 
can young ladies, and I think we may 
trust her. Moreover, I have a plan to 
suggest, which may be useful. My wife is also a woman of resources. 
We have a villa near Versailles. When it became inevitable that what 
is now taking place would take place, she said to me: 'You and Jules 
must go to Paris and identify yourself with the people. If you flee 
the country you will be stigmatized as a valet of the Bonapartes, and 
we can never return. If, on the contrary, Jules enter the army and 
associates himself with whatever government is in vogue in Paris, his 
future is before him. He has no past to be blotted out, and though 
it is difficult for us to turn political somersaults at our age, we must 
do it for the sake of our son.' Figurez voms, Madame, the admiration 
which I felt for my wife when I heard her utter such sentiments! 




HE CANTERED PAST THE 
WINDOW." 



CLEMENCE. 47 

' It shall be as you say, my angel. Henceforward we will renounce 
Badinguet (nickname for Napoleon III.) and become Republicans. 
Come to Paris with me and help me to begin a new life.' But here 
again my wife was wiser than I. ' No,' she said; 'it is enough for the 
new government as represented by General Trochu and M.Jules Favre 
to swallow Jules and you. I should be too great a morsel for them. 
I was always the ardent Imperialist of the family, and my conversion 
would not be readily believed. You two will get on much better if it 
is understood that you have quarrelled with wife and mother for the 
sake of your country. Besides, who is to stay and protect our home } 
If we all desert it, it will be destroyed by the Prussians. On the 
contrary, if I remain at the villa with our servants, I may indeed have 
Prussian officers quartered upon me, but I will make them guard 
our property; the Prussians are but men, and I have yet to see the 
man of whom I am afraid.' Ainsi^ Madame, vous voyez what a 
treasure of diplomacy I have in my wife. I have not a doubt that 
she will so win over the officers whom she may entertain, that 
should the Prussians unhappily succeed in their designs, not only 
the lives but the property of my son and myself would be quite safe 
in her hands." 

Mrs. Davenport, who was consumed with anxiety for Sallie, was 
wearied by the old gentleman's lengthy discourse, and rose from the 
table congratulating him upon the finesse of the Countess. 

" But, Madame, de grace, for one instant. Do you not see what all 
this signifies ? If worse comes to worst, we will telegraph Mademoi- 
selle Sallie to put herself in the hands of my wife, where she will 
be absolutely safe." 

Mrs. Davenport paused; the value to Sallie of such an asylum 
struck her forcibly. " You have my most profound thanks. Monsieur," 
she said gratefully ; " my acquaintance with your wife is so slight, 
however, that I hesitate to ask this great favor of her." 

"But, Madame," he replied, shrugging his shoulders in the expres- 



48 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



sive French way, " il faut faire a la guerre comme a la guerre. If 
Madame will allow me to present myself at her salon with my son 
when he returns from the telegraph office, we will then have the 
pleasure of continuing this conference." 




THE LITTLE TRIANON. 



Alice bought a paper, and the party went up to their rooms to 
read the rumors with more of credence and alarm than they had 
hitherto given to them. Presently a quick step was heard on the 
stairway and a timid knock at the door. "Can that be Jules de 



CLEMENCE. 



49 



Beaumont?" asked Melicent. It proved, however, to be little Clem- 
ence, who was so much agitated that she could not at first speak. 
" There are no more trains," she gasped at length ; " the gates are 
closed, and no one is allowed to leave Paris." 

Alice and Melicent looked at each other in dismay. " Then no 
one can enter Paris," Mrs. Davenport said, "and Sallie will have 
to accept the hospitality of the Countess de Beaumont." 

No one thought of Clemence until they heard her sobbing to her- 
self : " What will become of me? What will become of my mother?" 

" My poor child," said Mrs. Davenport, " I shall require a new 
maid, for Mathilde is detained in the country with our friend. If you 
would like the situation, you may remain with us." 

Clemence's face brightened. " I will do anything to prove my 
gratitude, — anything which Madame bids me," she exclaimed, falling 
upon her knees before Mrs. Davenport. 

"Then be so kind as to wait upon the door; some one is knock- 
ing. It is probably M. de Beaumont and his son." 

Clemence sprang to her feet with what seemed to the ladies 
remarkable alacrity; but instead of opening the right door, she 
hurriedly ran through another doorway just beside it, which led by 
means of a long passage to some rooms at the rear of the house. 

" How very stupid of her!" Melicent remarked, as Alice obligingly 
admitted the De Beaumonts. " What a little goose she is, any way!" 

Jules de Beaumont was really more depressed than his friends by 
the news which he brought. They had already learned that railway 
communication was closed, and Mrs. Davenport quite cheerfully tore 
in pieces her telegram, which Jules brought back, since it was quite 
useless to ask Sallie to return at once. 

She accepted M. de Beaumont's invitation for Sallie, and wrote 
another telegram explaining matters, and urging her immediately to 
put herself under the protection of the Countess. M. de Beaumont 
shook hands gleefully all around. 

A 



50 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



" This is quite as it should be," he exclaimed. " Nous voila, — 
one family in the country, one family in the city; all has arranged 
itself perfectly." 

Mrs. Davenport drew back a trifle. His cordiality was somewhat 
overwhelming ; but what could they do ? 

Morning brought a bombshell with the information that the 
telegraph station at Ferrieres was in the hands of the Prussians, and 
no message could be sent to Sallie. 

James Osborne came into the restaurant just as Jules de Beaumont 
announced this news to Mrs. Davenport. " Of course we can send 
a message to her," he remarked confidentially ; " we can communicate 
with her as long as she is at Ferrieres." 

" I don't see how," replied Mrs. Davenport, quite bewildered. 

" But I do," exclaimed Melicent, clapping her hands in delight, 
" Mere Babette's pige — " 

" Sh ! " said the young war correspondent. 



CHAPTER IV. 




AMONG THE PRUSSIANS. 

ALLIE slept well, and was awakened by the 
fluttering and cooing of doves in the turret and 
upon her window-sill. Mathilde brought her 
a roll and a cup of coffee, and she set out at 
once for a morning's sketching. Mere Babette 
had engaged a little peasant girl as model, and 
Sallie had decided to make a study of the lake 
in the park, with the child fishing upon its banks, 
and to reserve the dove-cot for the afternoon. 
As she tripped through the park she noticed that the sentinel 
at the great gate had been changed. The day before, a slender, 
strait-laced Frenchman had occupied the post ; now, a heavy-set man 
in a different and ill-fitting uniform stood in his place. As Sallie 
was already inside the park, it was not necessary for her to pass the 
sentinel, and she only gave him a careless glance as she hastened 
on to the lake, anxious not to lose a moment of the beautiful morning. 
The lake glittered in the sunshine ; Mere Babette, who had brought 
the sketching in her peasant's Jiotte, or field-basket, which she wore 
strapped to her back as Indian mothers carry their pappooses (see 
back of cover), made such a brilliant spot of color, in her plaided 
turban, her red bodice with its full white sleeves, her blue apron, gay 
petticoat, and picturesque wooden shoes, that Sallie dashed in a 
sketch of her as she stood under a pollarded willow. Ernestine, the 
little model, amused herself meantime with gathering wild-flowers, 



52 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



but when the first sketch was finished, and Mere Babette had gone 
back to the dove-cot, she took her place as a Httle fisher-maiden. 
She posed very well ; and as she had blond curling hair, a fair skin, 
and blue eyes, she reminded Sallie of a German child whom she had 
seen on the Rhine ; and fancying herself quite alone, she sang clearly, 
" Du bist wie eine blume." To her annoyance, a skiff 
darted around a point of land and passed by them. 
The boat contained three gentlemen in uniform, — 
officers, Sallie fancied, from the amount of glittering 
gold braid, — and they must have heard her singing 
a German song. It was vexatious ; for they might 
think her a Prussian sympathizer and put an end 
to her sketching in the park. The boat was moored 
on the opposite side of the lake, and the gentle- 
men walked up the path toward the chateau. 
After a time she became so absorbed in her work 
that the incident ceased to trouble her, 
;;> and on her return to the dove-cot it had 

entirely slipped her mind. She spent the 
afternoon as she had planned, in securing 
a sketch of the dove-cot. They were quite 
remote from the village, and no one came 
to interrupt them. Mere Babette sat on 
the doorstep and knitted, Mathilde took out 
her embroidery, and the pleasant September 
day closed peacefully. 
The next morning, having leisurely finished another sketch, Sallie 
strapped her effects and walked with Mathilde to the railway-station, 
Mere Babette hobbling along with her and greatly regretting her de- 
parture. Arrived at the station, they were puzzled to find the ticket 
office closed, no officials in sight, no tourists in the waiting-room. What 




"the sentinel at the 
great gate." 



could this sudden stagnation mean 1 



Sallie at length found the ex- 



k 



AMONG THE PRUSSIANS. 



53 



omnibus driver lounging about the station from force of habit, though 
his vehicle and horses were nowhere in sight, and the mystery was 
explained. Had not Mademoiselle heard ? The last train had left 
Paris on the previous day, and the railroad gates were closed ; there 
would be no more trains to or from Paris for no one knew how lone. 

*' Then," Sallie exclaimed resolutely, " I must go by diligence or 
private conveyance. What will you charge for taking us ? " 

The man declared himself desolated not to be able to oblige Made- 
moiselle, but his horses had been seized for the French artillery, and 




"THE LAKE GLITTERED IN THE SUNSHINE." 

he was sure there were none to be had in the village ; besides, it was 
more than rumored that a detachment of Prussians had arrived, and 
were between Ferrieres and Paris. 

" I am not at all afraid of them," Sallie asserted, " and I must join 
my friends ; they will be very much worried about me. Mere Babette, 
will you not take me in your market-cart } " 

Mere Babette cheerfully harnessed her donkey, and the three 
women set out for Paris. They had driven but a few miles before 



54 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 




THE LITTLE MODEL. 



they saw the road bristling with the lances of the Uhlans, and 

presently their progress was barred by 
a German outpost. 

" Can we not go around ? " Sallie 
asked of Mere Babette. The sentinel 
understood her, and smilingly replied 
that all roads to Paris were held by the 
Prussians. 

" To whom can I go for permission 
to pass } " asked the still undaunted 
Sallie. 

" Unser Fritz is at the Chateau Fer- 
riere," was the reply ; " if you bring a 
permit signed by him all will be right." 
So there was nothing to be done but to go back to the dove-cot and 

take dinner, for they were all very tired and hungry, and then ask for 

an audience at headquarters. The Crown 

Prince was said to be very courteous. 

There were reports that he had visited 

the French wounded after the battle of 

Werth, and had expressed his disapproval 

of the war. His wife was a daughter 

of Queen Victoria, and Sallie was sure 

that he would have a kindly feeling for 

any one speaking the English tongue. 

Taking Mathilde with her, she presented 

herself boldly at the chateau, and asked 

for an interview with Prince Friedrich. 

The orderly to whom she presented this request looked much amused, 

but showed her into a room where a portly secretary was writing at a 

table covered with papers. He removed his eye-glasses and regarded 

her with astonishment as she finished her little speech. 




THE SECRETARY. 




CAPTAIN MULLER. 



AMONG THE PRUSSIANS. 57 

" The Prince cannot see you," he said shortly, " and this proceed- 
ing is so entirely irregular that it will be quite useless to present the 
request ; it would certainly be refused." 

Sallie bowed, and sarcastically thanked the secretary for his kind- 
ness. Tears blurred her eyes as she passed out into the sunshine, and 
she had walked some distance before she heard steps on the walk be- 
hind her, and turning saw that she was followed by the orderly who 
had so smilingly admitted her. His face was grave now, and he touched 
his helmet respectfully. He was a slight undersized man, as delicately 
featured as a girl, with blond hair and forget-me-not eyes, with a frank 
way of looking one full in the face, which instead of embarrassing 
Sallie made her feel unaccountably at home. He had been smoking, 
but he removed his meerschaum, and introducing himself as Captain 
Miiller, continued : " I beg pardon, Fraiilein, but perhaps I can be of 
some service to you. I think I passed you yesterday as you were 
sketching by the lake, and heard you singing a German song. Why 
did you not tell the Herr Secretary that you were of our nation } It 
might have made a difference in his answer." 

" But I am not a German," Sallie replied ; " I am an American." 

" I might have known it," the young man returned with enthu- 
siasm ; " you Americans hesitate at nothing, however unreasonable." 

" If your friends were in the city worrying about your safety, I do 
not think this would seem to you an unreasonable thing." 

" But even if the Prince should give you a safe -conduct through 
our lines, that would not admit you to the city; indeed, it would be 
almost a proof to the French that you were a Prussian spy." 

Sallie laughed gayly. " My friends are too influential for that," 
she replied. " There is Minister Washburne, who knows us all person- 
ally, and Mr. Osborne, who has so much influence with General Trochu, 
and the Count de Beaumont, and Mr. Cholmondely Jones in the 
British Legation, — no one would ever suspect our party of anything of 
that kind. Besides, I have my American passport and a French laisser- 



58 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

passer, 2ir\d Mrs. Davenport will have her carriage waiting for me every 
afternoon at the gate until I return. Alphonse, our coachman, is well 
known by the guards ; we used to drive out to the environs every day." 

Captain Miiller was evidenUy much interested. " Have you your 
papers with you } " he asked. " I would like to show them to the 
Prince." 

" They are at the dove-cot," Sallie replied ; and the young officer 
waited upon her to the door, and sat in Mere Babette's kitchen while 
Sallie ran upstairs for her credentials. He looked them over thought- 
fully, and promised to do what he could. 

" And now, Fraiilein," he added, " if you could sing me another 
song of my Fatherland, it would do me a world of good ; for we poor 
fellows are sadly afflicted with homesickness." 

The shadows were falling outside, and Sallie sat down by Mere 
Babette's fireplace and sang a little folk-song, an abschied, or fare- 
well, of a soldier to his village home. A realization of the loneliness 
of this young man, who was scarcely more than a boy, came over her 
as she saw the far-away look in his eyes as he stood by the door with 
folded arms thinking of his own home on the far-away Rhine, and she 
threw a sympathetic, hopeful thrill into the refrain : — 

" Wenn i' komm', wenn i' komm', wenn i' wiedrum komm'." 

There was a little silence after she had finished, and then the 
orderly thanked her in an unsteady voice. 

" If I only had a piano here," Sallie said, " I would sing you some 
of my Schubert songs ; but perhaps this is quite enough." 

The young man started from his reverie. " If the piano were 
here I could play your accompaniments ; but it is later than I thought. 
I will do the very best for you that I can ; " and he hurried away. 

Sallie was very hopeful ; but she was disturbed in the night by the 
sound of distant firing. Fighting was going on somewhere, and she 
could not help feeling that after all her own position was a very un- 
safe one. 




THE FAR-AWAY RHINE. 



AMONG THE PRUSSIANS. 6 1 

Early in the morning she was wakened by Mere Babette, with 
the cheering news that one of her pigeons had come back from Paris 
with a note under its wing. It was from Mrs. Davenport, and ran 
thus: — 

My dear Child, — We are distracted for your safety. Will be at the Porte 
de Neuilly with Alphonse every afternoon to meet you ; but if you cannot get 
back to us, go to Madame de Beaumont, at Villa Beaumont Versailles. She will 
assist you in getting out of the country. 

Yours lovingly, 

Isabel Davenport. 

On the reverse of this scrap of paper, which was of the most diapha- 
nous tissue, was written in James Osborne's hand : — 

My dear Miss Benton, — General Trochu has no spy at Ferriere. If you 
can arrange with some one before you leave to send me weekly instalments of 
important information, I shall be greatly obliged. 

Your obedient servant, 

James Osborne. 

Sallie immediately burned this missive over the little lamp which 
was heating her cafe au lait. Then she wrote an answer to Mrs. 
Davenport, saying that she had not yet given up being able to return, 
and begging her to have Alphonse and the coupe at the gate every 
afternoon that week ; and to Mr. Osborne, giving the result of her ob- 
servations on the previous day both on the road and at the chateau. 
Having finished her letter, she called Mere Babette and asked for one 
of the Duval pigeons to carry it for her. 

Mere Babette's grief was pathetic. A Prussian soldier foraging for 
the officers' mess had just left the dove-cot, having seized upon that 
particular crate of birds for the gentlemen at the chateau. 

Sallie was in despair. Why could n't he have taken some of the 
other pigeons with which the dove-cot was overflowing.? Now, there 
was no possibility of sending any messages to Paris. 

Poor Mere Babette was very contrite. " The other pigeons were 



62 ' THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

wild, and would have given him the trouble of the Evil One to catch; 
while these, the soldier could see, were ready caged to his hand. Ah ! 
they are cunning, these Prussians, for one of them talked with me 
and kept my attention by telling me how much I resembled his wife, 
and that he would promise that my dove-cot would not be burned 
while he had a head on his shoulders, and all the time voyons his 
camarade was ransacking the colombier, and walking off with the 
basket of carrier pigeons." 

Sallie formed a sudden resolve while Mere Babette was talking: 
she would not onl}^ rescue the carriers, through her new acquaintance, 
but if anything occurred to detain her here she would herself send 
back to Mr. Osborne what news she could gather. If the Prussians 
did but know, it would be greatly to their advantage to speed her 
on her way to her friends, as she would like nothing better than to 
serve that gruff old secretar}^ a turn. She did not consider how she 
was to obtain her information ; and as she did not like to present her- 
self at the chateau, she sent a note to Captain MUller, complaining 
of the theft of the pigeons, and sat down to her sketching in an 
uncomfortable frame of mind. 

Her note brought the young officer immediately to the dove-cot, 
and Sallie repeated the story, telling the trick by which the Prince's 
servants had robbed the dove-cot of this old peasant woman, in whom 
she was greatly interested. ''Das ist abscheulich ! " (That is shameful !) 
exclaimed the orderly. " I need not wait to see the Prince. What 
are the birds worth } Let me reimburse the old woman." 

" It is not the money," Sallie stammered, a little taken aback by 
the turn which matters had taken ; " but if the birds have not already 
been killed, she would so much rather have them." 

"Ah! truly.? They are then such pets.? I thought peasants were 
always avaricious," and Sallie feared that her flaming color would 
betray her; but the young man promised that the pigeons taken from 
Mere Babette that morning should be returned to her immediately. 






.'X-*fiS' 




W 
H 

K 
u 

w 

K 
H 






AMONG THE PRUSSIANS. 65 

*' You are a spirited girl," he continued, turning to Sallie, " and I 
am sorry that I have not yet been able to see the Prince about your 
safe-conduct. You see they had an important council of war at the 
chateau nearly all night. Jules Favre has appeared at headquarters 
to treat on conditions of peace, and the Prince has been listening to 
the opinions of his generals. I had to make a record of everythino- 
that was said, for the secretary who should have been on duty was 
tired out. The officers will soon leave the chateau ; and if you will 
come with me to the little kiosk on the hill yonder, I can point Count 
Bismarck out to you, as well as some of the most celebrated generals 
in our army." 

Sallie dropped her brushes and accompanied Captain Miiller to 
the summer-house, which was not far distant. As the officers rode 
down the avenue he handed her his field-glass, and told her not only 
their names, but their histories, and the opinions which each had 
uttered, and the plans which had been suggested at the council. " The 
upshot of it all is," he continued, " that we require the cession of 
Alsace and Lorraine as a condition of peace, and for an armistice, 
immediate possession of Metz, Strasburg, and Mont Valerien." 

" The French will never consent to that," Sallie replied impulsively. 

" Do you think so } " Captain Miiller asked. " A good deal 
depends, you know, on the answer which the French Government 
makes. We leave here in a few days. You see we are gradually 
tightening our grip upon Paris. The Crown Prince is going to 
Versailles. For myself, I am very glad. I have heard so much of the 
wonderful palace with its treasures of art, where that unfortunate 
little Marie Antoinette was so happy for a time. She was Austrian, 
and I am Bavarian ; so I have always regarded her as a sort of 
countrywoman of mine. I am curious, too, to see the great fountains 
play; they must be wunderschonr 

" We may see them together. I am also going to friends near 
Versailles," Sallie was on the point of saying ; but the thought that 

5 



66 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

this would seem to be an admission that she would like to continue 
the acquaintance, came in time to prevent the utterance of the state- 
ment, and she only replied that she hoped he would be able before his 
departure to arrange her permission to enter Paris, and would save 
the pigeons before it was too late. 

"You remind me that there is no time to be lost," he replied, 
gallantly taking his leave. 

Sallie came slowly back to the dove-cot, debating within herself 
whether it was quite honorable to send to Mr. Osborne the informa- 
tion which she had obtained from this unsuspecting friend. Much of it 
would be made known ofificially on the return of Jules Favre to Paris ; 
but there were certain points as to the carrying on of the campaign, 
should the conditions of peace be rejected, which would be important 
for the French to know. She sat down in the courtyard, and taking 
a block of sketching-paper from her pocket, made a careful report of 
the more important part of the conversation. Presently Mere Babette 
called her in to lunch, and after running up to her own room to make 
herself presentable, she took her place at the little table. While there, 
the soldiers who had stolen the pigeons appeared with the basket, and 
a note for Sallie. 

" Take them up to the loft," she said indifferently, not caring to 
manifest too great an interest in the birds. 

In the note Captain MUller informed her that he had been 
suddenly summoned to accompany the Crown Prince to Versailles. 
He had not yet been able to secure her permission to enter Paris, but 
he assured her that he still hoped to obtain it, and would himself take 
pleasure in bringing it to her. He had not returned her own papers 
which he had borrowed, and Sallie felt some misgivings in being with- 
out them. Still, as she fancied that he might need them, she tried not 
to feel disappointed. When the men came down the stairs, only one 
of them entered the kitchen ; the other vanished quickly around the 
corner, and Sallie thought he had a sack of barley in his arms. She 



'^^'hi.ji^^^^^it^- - 




AMONG THE PRUSSIANS. 69 

told the soldier standing in the doorway that if this were so he would 
be obliged to return it; and Mere Babette went up to the loft to see if 
anything was missing. She came back reporting that all was right, 
and Sallie thanked the soldier for returning the pigeons, and dismissed 
him. 

" I must leave you, Mere Babette," she said after she had thought 
the matter over. " To-morrow morning I will trouble you to harness 
your donkey-cart and take me to the Villa Beaumont. Perhaps while 
I am there I can learn something of your daughter ; " and she explained 
to the good woman her acquaintance with the De Beaumont family. 

" I will take the Duval pigeons with me," she continued, "and you 
must bring me any message which may come from Paris." 

She went up to the loft to look at the birds and feed them, and 
found that only a half-dozen had been returned, the others having 
been potted for the breakfast given to the generals that morning. " I 
must send my news to Mr. Osborne to-night," she thought, " and tell 
Mrs. Davenport that I am going to Versailles ; " and remembering that 
she had left the first draught of her report for the war correspondent in 
a pocket of her ulster, she descended to her chamber and threw open 
the door of the wardrobe. What was her surprise at discovering that 
it was entirely empty. Not only had her ulster and great hat with 
the scarlet feather been spirited away, but the dress with pink rufifles 
which had belonged to Clemence was also missing. She stared at the 
empty hooks for a few moments without comprehending the situation ; 
but she soon remembered the man with the bag, and realized that the 
soldier had stolen the clothing while she was talking with his comrade 
in the kitchen, — exactly repeating the manoeuvre by which he had 
captured the pigeons. At first she laughed, wondering what use the 
men could make of feminine clothing. Then a graver look came into 
her face as she remembered that her resume of Captain Miiller's con- 
versation was in the pocket of that ulster. Its discovery would prove 
her a French spy, and she hardly dared think what the consequences 



JO 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



mio-ht be. If Captain Mliller was still at the chateau she might hope 
to have her ulster returned before the note was discovered. 

Putting on Mathilde's bonnet, she hurried to the chateau, only to 
ascertain from the secretary that Captain Mliller had already gone. 
He looked so forbidding that she did not dare mention the theft for 
fear that it would precipitate her arrest ; and hoping that the soldiers, 
who evidently did not understand English, might destroy the papers, 

or at least not send them to headquarters 
until after her departure, she came back 
troubled and much perplexed to Mere Ba- 
bette. She did not think it best to confide 
to her the full extent of her apprehension, 
but she tried to persuade her to set out at 
once for Versailles, making the journey by 
night. This the old woman positively re- 
fused to do, arguing very sensibly that they 
would be sure to fall in with Prussian 
outposts who would consider travelling by 
night far more suspicious than by day. 
Sallie finally determined to send off only 
her message to Mrs. Davenport. She felt 
the danger of playing spy too deeply to 
involve herself any more at present. She 
passed the remainder of the afternoon in vainly attempting to sketch. 
Just after dinner Mathilde, who had been to the village on some 
errand, rushed into the kitchen breathless and evidently much fright- 
ened. On catching sight of Sallie she exclaimed, "A ghost! Sainte 
Vierge ! A ghost ! " and sank on the floor in a dead faint. 

For a time all other fears were forgotten in bringing Mathilde 
to her senses, and persuading her that Sallie was not a disembodied 
spirit. 

When she became calm she told a wild story of having seen SaHie 




I RAN AFTER THE CARRIAGE. 



AMONG THE PRUSSIANS. 



73 



in the village, seated in an open carriage with a Prussian officer. It 
was in vain that her mistress assured her that she had not been in the 
village that day. 

" I saw you with my own eyes," Mathilde insisted ; " you had on 
your ulster, and the hat with the flamingo plume, only there was a 
travelling veil over your face such as I have never seen you wear ; but 
there is no other person in France who wears such an ulster and such 
a hat. I could not have been mistaken. I ran after the carriaQ-e a 
long way, and you turned and waved to me to return. At that instant I 
experienced the bitterness of death, for I thought that I was forsaken." 

" That one action ought to have convinced you, dear Mathilde, that 
the person you saw was not I ; for I would never forsake you. My 
cloak and hat have been stolen ; it was probably a friend of the thief 
who was hurrying away with the plunder." 

" But it was only a common soldier who took them," grumbled 
Mere Babette, " and Mathilde says this lady was in a fine carriage 
with an officer and servants. Oest bien straitp-e'' 

" Yes," assented Sallie, " it is indeed a mystery. We will not try 
to unravel it, but will get to bed as quickly as possible, for we must be 
ready to start at the first peep of dawn." 




CHAPTER V. 




HARBORING A SPY. 

RS. DAVENPORT, though outwardly calm, 
was still much alarmed for Sallies safety. 
Every day the girls went up to the dove-cot 
in the attic to look over the pigeons and see 
if there was any message from Ferrieres, de- 
spite Mr. Osborne's assurance that he would 
bring them the first that arrived. One morn- 
ing as Melicent was looking away to the 
southward through her opera-glass, she suddenly exclaimed, " I see a 
pigeon flying wearily in this direction. No, it is only a chimney swal- 
low ; for it has lighted on one of the chimneys in the next square." 

Clemence, who was dusting the room, took the glass. " Mademoi- 
selle," she exclaimed, " it is indeed a pigeon. I have tended and 
watched them enough in my childhood to know them well. It is 
only resting on the chimney. Parisian pigeons are all cooped up like 
Madame Duval's, for it is not safe, poor people are so hungry now, to 
leave them at large. This one has probably come from a distance." 

"It is well the cats are cooped up too," Melicent replied; "that 
roof used to be a regular Champs Elysees for them." 

Clemence suddenly dropped the glass, and exclaiming, " Madem- 
oiselle, the bird is flying this way ! " scampered upstairs to the grenier. 
Melicent dashed after her, and they stood together on the little bal- 
cony just as the pigeon fluttered down. It brought Sallie's message, 




A FRIEND IN NEED. 



HARBORING A SPY. 77 

and every one was greatly relieved to learn that she was not only safe, 
but hopeful of rejoining them. 

" I shall go to the Porte de Neuilly in the coupe this afternoon," 
said Mrs. Davenport. 

" Oh, no. Mamma ! " Melicent replied ; " you know this is your 
reception afternoon. Alice and I will meet Sallie. What fun it 
will be ! " 

"You must not be too sure," Mrs. Davenport cautioned, "or you 
may be doomed to disappointment." 

The girls set out, nevertheless, in high spirits. The guns at Mont 
Valerien were booming, but they seemed to them only a holiday salute, 
and not real war.. On the Avenue de Flmperatrice, Jules de Beau- 
mont, recognizing their carriage and driver, cantered up to them, and 
on learning their errand rode with them to the gate. Here he ex- 
ercised his influence with the guards, and they passed through into 
the Bois de Boulogne. What a change from the brilliant pleasure- 
grounds which they had known ! A redoubt had been erected, great 
trees cut down to form barricades, and soldiers were encamped on the 
race-course. One of these, who stared at them as they passed, struck 
the girls as not at all resembling a Frenchman. 

" He is a Moblot," Jules de Beaumont explained. " They are not 
used to their uniforms yet ; but there is no better stuff" for making 
good fighters than in our Mobile." 

The Prussian batteries could be seen on the heights of St. Cloud 
and Meudon. They waited a long time, and were about to turn back 
disappointed, as they had done every day since Sallies departure, 
when they saw a soldier who knew of their daily errand signalling to 
them excitedly from a little distance, and a moment later he came back 
with the news that some French soldiers were coming in with a lady. 
She had been driven up to the outposts by a peasant in a market- 
wagon, — a small flag of truce conspicuously displayed, — and had 
shown them papers which she wished to have examined by the officer 



78 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

in charge. Jules de Beaumont rode forward, and recognizing Sallie's 
ulster and hat, hurried to the officer, who was already favorably im- 
pressed by the regular aspect of the papers, and gave him his word 
of honor as a patriot and a soldier that it was all right. In the mean 
time the friendly soldier had officiously conducted the pretended 
Sallie, whom our readers have doubtless recognized as Captain M tiller 
in disguise, to the carriage. The new-comer was fairly inside, enthu- 
siastically greeted, and the horses' heads were turned toward Paris, 
before Melicent discovered her mistake. 

" How is this ? " she exclaimed. " We took you for a friend of ours ; 
but you are not Sallie after all. Alice, tell Alphonse to stop, and let 
this ladv alis^ht. It is all a mistake." 

" My dear young lady," exclaimed the stranger, " I beg you will 
not stop until you have heard my explanation. I am a friend of Miss 
Benton, and come directly from her, as her cloak and hat and pass- 
ports will prove. My necessity was greater than hers, and she nobly 
furnished me the means for entering Paris, which I could not have 
done without her aid. I have an aged grandmother in the city, from 
whom I was separated, as I was a governess at Ferriere ; and unfortu- 
natel)^ I am of German descent and had no papers of any kind with me. 
My grandmother is very old, and an invalid ; my last news from her 
bade me hasten to her at once, as she was distracted for my safety and 
her own. But the summons came too late ; I could find no means of 
reaching her or communicating with her until I met your friend. I 
would not have accepted her kindness were she not perfectly safe and 
comfortable where she is. I beg you will not think too meanly of me. 
Even now my dear old grandmother may be dying." 

Melicent was silent, but Alice spoke up impulsively : " Such self- 
sacrifice was like our Sallie. But now we cannot hope to see her 
until the siege is ended." 

" It is strange that she did not mention you in her last letter," 
Melicent remarked ; while Captain Miiller wondered what these 




ONE OF THESE STAKED AT THEM AS THEY PASSED. 



HARBORING A SPY. 



words meant. Her last letter! Then Miss Benton had some means 
unknown to him of communicating with her friends. This was a 
complication which he had not foreseen. 

"Had she started for Versailles when you left?" asked Alice. 

This question perplexed him still more, but he answered truthfully 
that he had left her with Mere Babette, and had not known of her 
intention of leaving Ferrieres. 

" Where would you like to have us leave you } " was the next em- 
barrassing question ; but this time it was Melicent who assisted him 
out of his predicament, by saying, 
" If you are not in too great haste 
I wish you would come home with 
us first and see my mother; she 
will be so anxious to hear the latest 
news from Sallie." 

Arrived at their door, they led 
the stranger directly to their apart- 
ment ; but Madame Duval, who was 
always writing at her counter in 

the restaurant (Melicent was sure that she had a contract with Alex- 
andre Dumas for writing his novels), looked up as they passed, and 
catching the flash of the scarlet feather, reported to her clients during 
the day that, ''Miracle des miracles, Mademoiselle Sallie had returned 
herself in safety." 

Mrs. Davenport was disappointed ; but sacrificing herself for 
another was so exactly what might have been expected of Sallie, that 
she was not at all suspicious, and after a short conversation Alphonse 
was again summoned to take their visitor (who had introduced herself 
as Miss Miller) wherever she desired. 

Alphonse returned an hour later, saying that she had desired him 
to leave her near the Hotel de Ville ; whereat Melicent remarked 
that that was an odd residence for the old grandmother. 

6 




MADAME DUVAL. 



82 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

"There are some very old and poor houses in that quarter," sug- 
gested AHce ; " perhaps she was ashamed of her relative's poverty, and 
did not wish Alphonse to see exactly where she lives." 

That evening, as they were quietly reading their papers around the 
lamp, the party were surprised by the reappearance of Miss Miller. 
She burst into tears on entering, and it was some time before she 
could explain that she had arrived too late, and the old grandmother 
was dead. " And now," she added, " I wish that I had remained out- 
side ; for I am friendless and homeless, and have no idea where to go. 
Will you not use your influence with your landlady to let me hire a 
room here until I can obtain permission to leave Paris } " 

"Since Sallie's departure we have taken Alice into our own apart- 
ment," said Mrs. Davenport, " and you are welcome to use the studio 
at night if it will serve you. It has an alcove bed and is comfortable, 
though rather lonely." 

The friendless girl accepted this offer with alacrity. She seemed 
so modest and retiring, so overwhelmed by her position, that the party 
felt a strong interest in her. Melicent accompanied her in shopping 
expeditions, for she seemed to have plenty of money, and resolutely 
declined to accept the girls' offers of clothing. She seemed to have 
no definite notion of what she needed, buying whatever Melicent sug- 
gested, — and the latter thought her a remarkably unsophisticated girl. 

Alice had a permit which allowed of her sketching in certain quar- 
ters, and Miss Miller, who drew passably, frequently accompanied 
her. She seemed especially interested in the fortifications, and made 
notes of the cannon, which she said she intended to use some time in 
a large picture. And so it happened that the stranger was indefi- 
nately domiciled with them. 

The situation was partly explained to Madame Duval, to Jules de 
Beaumont, and to Mr. Osborne ; but the other habitues of the restau- 
rant were confirmed in their opinion that Sallie had returned. Neither 
Madame Duval nor Mr. Osborne knew exactly where they had made 



HARBORING A SPY. 



83 



the acquaintance of this new friend, but imagined that she was some 
forlorn American who had found herself alone in Paris and had been 
admitted to their company. Jules de Beaumont alone knew that she 
had come to them from outside the lines, and at present he was 
so deeply occupied by his own affairs that 
he gave the matter no consideration. 

It so happened that while Melicent was 
explaining the story to Jules on the next 
evening after Miss Millers arrival, the 
young Frenchman having called to return 
Sallie's passports, which had been left at the 
barriere, he had a reflected view in the mir- 
ror of Clemence in the next room pouring 
chocolate. 

Melicent was just saying that their new 
friend was German, and this circumstance 
might have excited his suspicions had not 
that familiar profile suddenly dawned upon 
his vision. His brain reeled, and his eyes 
nearly started from his head. Clemence was here, — Clemence, whom 
he had sought for so long and so vainly. Melicent, who finished her 
explanations, asked if he would like to be introduced to Miss Miller; 
but Jules showed by his confused expression that he had not heard 
what she was saying. 

" I beg your pardon," he stammered, blushing violently. 

" I asked if you would like to meet her," Melicent repeated some- 
what stiffly.. 

''Mais, certainemenf,'' Jules exclaimed eagerly, hoping that she 
might be speaking of Clemence ; and Melicent left the room to invite 
Miss Miller to come down. 

As Alice was sitting near, Jules was unable to rush into the next 
room as he would have liked to do ; and by a strong effort of will he 




CLEMENCE POURING 
CHOCOLATE. 



84 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

withdrew his gaze from the mirror and tried to reply coherently to 
Alice's remarks. 

" Poor young man ! " thought Alice ; " how deeply he is in love with 
Melicent, and she does not care for him in the least." 

Meantime Melicent had tapped and entered at the studio door. 
She found Miss Miller seated at a table in a rather masculine atti- 
tude, gazing intently at Sallie's portrait. 

" Is it not good ? " Melicent asked. " Alice painted it ; she is 
very clever, — but we do not think the expression natural. It is sen- 
timental, and no one can imagine our Sallie that." 

To Melicent's surprise, the German girl replied with a sigh. 

" You are lonely," Melicent said kindly. '• We have company 
downstairs ; will you not join us } " 

''Ah, Fraulein, bitte ; you know I am in grief, and would rather 
not see society." 

" This is only the friend who helped get you through the lines ; 
he is a very inoffensive young man, who falls in love with every lady 
whom he meets. That dress is so becoming to you, that if you will 
let me fasten this lace fichu about you I shall be anxious to see what 
impression you will make on his susceptible heart. Your blue eyes 
and your short, curling, blond hair make such a different appearance 
from that of most French girls, that you are really very bewitching." 

Miss Miller smiled in spite of herself, and descended with Meli- 
cent to Mrs. Davenport's salon. Alice had seated herself at the piano, 
and Miss Miller followed, proving herself a brilliant pianist. 

" I have played for Liszt," she said simply, in reply to their 
compliments. 

Later in the evening Mr. Osborne dropped in on his way to the 
Gare du Nord to witness a balloon ascension. 

" I shall send my newspaper letters by it," he said, tapping a large 
packet which protruded from a pocket of his overcoat. " A night 
ascension is an interesting spectacle. I should be happy to take any 
of you with me who would like to see it." 



HARBORING A SPY. 



85 



interesting 



Miss Miller and Melicent immediately expressed their desire to 
witness the event; and Jules de Beaumont offering his escort to Meli- 
cent, Miss Miller was left to Mr. 
Osborne, rather to his disappoint- 
ment, as Alice fancied. 

" Shall I not send for the car- 
riage .?" Mrs. Davenport asked ; but 
Mr. Osborne thought that there 
was no time to be lost, and that 
they would reach their destination 
more quickly by omnibus. On the 
way he found his companion more 
than he had antici- 
pated. She did not talk 
a great deal, but she was a 
good listener, throwing in a 
deft question now and then 
which kept Mr. Osborne dis- 
coursing on the state of Paris. 
Did he think the Gov- 
ernment would hold to its 
policy, " Neither 
an inch of our 
territory nor a 
stone of our for- 
tresses," — the 
reply rendered 
with so much 
spirit to the 
offered peace 
on the condi- 




ON DUTY. 



tions named at the council at Ferrieres.? 



86 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE, 

" Yes," replied Mr, Osborne, " it is my opinion that they will stick 
it out M. Gambetta calls upon us to die for our country, and our 
entire populace seem to be in a heroic frame of mind." 

"It is easy to vaunt and bluster," replied Miss Miller; "but will 
they really fight? " 

" I think so. The Mobiles ask nothing better; the Nationaux will 
make soldiers too, after the gilt is worn off their uniforms. We have 
four hundred and fifty thousand soldiers in Paris, and five hundred 
thousand more able-bodied men. Paris will fight." 

" But suppose the Prussians do not. Let us imagine that they 
avoid all engagements, but simply cut off supplies and rely on the 
grand marshal from within the city. Hunger, to co-operate with them." 

" Paris is very well provisioned ; we have abundance of food for 
two months, and in two months we shall have our Grand Marshal 
attacking the Prussians outside." 

" I see you rely on the army of the Loire getting between the 
Prussians and Germany." 

" No, I place very little reliance on reinforcements of that kind ; 
but the grand marshal Winter is perfectly certain to arrive, and the 
Prussians will find that camping in the open is not such a holiday 
affair about Christmas-time." 

Miss Miller was silent. They had reached the railway station, 
wdiere by the light of a circle of engine headlights the great balloon, 
as it slowly filled, was swelling and wallowing, as Melicent said, like 
restless young giants kicking at their bed-clothes. The aeronaut, 
pale but resolute, stood by his basket receiving packages which were 
brought him; sand-bags were piled into the basket, ropes, instruments, 
a lunch-hamper, blankets, and other articles were handed in. At the 
last moment a messenger hurried in with despatches from the Corps 
Diplomatique. Miss Miller started. 

" If that balloon should fall into the hands of the Prussians — " 
she said, half to herself. 



HARBORING A SPY. 



87 



" There is a good sou'westerly wind blowing," replied Mr. Osborne. 
" It is more likely to sail clear over the heads of the besiegers and land 
somewhere in Belgium." 

Miss Miller made some more inquiries as to the price of balloons, 
where they could be obtained, and the cost of sending letters in this 




"it was a drum-corps of doys." 



way. The balloon had filled, and was tugging at its moorings. The 
aeronaut and another gentleman stepped into the wicker car and gave 
the order, " Laissez alter l'' The last rope was loosed, some sand-bags 



88 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

thrown out, and the balloon shot up into the starry heavens ; the 
crowd of on-lookers cheered, and quietly dispersed. 

As the party returned, Melicent remarked on the gloominess of the 
streets, usually so brilliant in the evening. 

" They are economizing the gas," Mr. Osborne replied. " Only 
one street lamp in every six is lighted now." 

"It seems very unnatural to be without lights and music in Paris," 
said Jules. 

" There is music, now," remarked Melicent. It was a drum-corps 
of boys, merely tapping their drums — step, step — as they came down 
the boulevard ; but as they passed they began to sing, — 

"Allons, enfants de la patrie." 

^^ Pauvres gamins''' said Miss Miller; " for some of you le jour de 
gloire will come all too soon." Shortly after she remarked, " I do not 
understand how it is that provisions are not much higher, and entirely 
out of the reach of the poor." 

"The Government regulates the distribution of meat," Mr. Osborne 
explained. "A certain number of animals are killed daily; the meat 
is divided among the butchers according to the number of their cus- 
tomers. Tickets are issued to heads of families, and they can pur- 
chase only as much as their tickets call for ; while the very poor are 
provided witli a small share of bread and meat gratis." 

On reaching home, the spy bade the others good-night and as- 
cended to the studio. He paced the room for a time, in deep thought. 
He had found it comparatively easy to get into Paris, but how was he 
ever to get out } His situation for the present was both safe and 
pleasant. Moreover, he was in a position to collect much important 
information. His plan for sending this information to the Prussians 
was to provide himself, in Paris, with small balloons, not large or 
strong enough to go very far, and to send these off at intervals with 
packets addressed to the Prussian headquarters. They would proba- 



HARBORING A SPY. 89 

bly come to the ground somewhere within the Prussian lines, and the 
letters would reach their destination. 

He realized now that the purchase of such small balloons, if possi- 
ble, would be considered a very suspicious circumstance, and he could 
think of no means of getting his despatches to the Crown Prince. 
Suddenly it occurred to him that the girls had unguardedly spoken, 
on the day of. his arrival, of a letter received from Sallie. Was there 
some regular means of communication between them 1 He could 
hardly believe it possible, for if so, they would have discovered his 
fraud; but how had the letter of which they spoke been brought to 
them .? He determined to question Alice the next day, but he must be 
very cautious. In the mean time he would take a look at the loft 
overhead, and see if the roof was easy of access for the sending off of 
balloons in case he was able to obtain them. As he entered the loft 
his lighted candle disturbed the pigeons, and their nestling and coo- 
ing surprised him ; for as they were caged he had not heretofore been 
aware of their presence. He saw that they were kept in three coops ; 
the largest was filled with ordinary doves, and the two smaller, as 
he attentively observed them, he was sure contained carriers. An 
•idea suddenly struck him : those pigeons which so excited Sallie's 
anxiety at Ferrieres must also be carriers; and here was the key 
to the mystery. A little more diligent scrutiny disclosed the 
fact that one of the coops was marked in chalk, " Dieppe," and the 
other, " F." This latter, he argued, must contain the carriers for 
Ferrieres. He was about to return to the studio, when he noticed 
a pigeon roosting alone upon a barrel in one corner of the loft. 
The roof contained several unglazed dormer windows, and he com- 
prehended that this pigeon had arrived since any one interested had 
visited the loft. He caught the bird without difficulty, and found 
a message wrapped around the central tail-feather and securely fas- 
tened by means of sewing-silk. He unwrapped the message and 
read : — 



90 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



Versailles, September 25. 
Dear Mrs. Davenport, • — ■ I arrived safely at Villa Beaumont this morn- 
ing. Madame la Comtesse is very kind. Any message sent by pigeon-post to 
Ferrieres will be brought to me here. Lovingly, 

Sallie. 

Captain Miiller carefully replaced the missive and descended to 
the studio, greatly pleased by his discoveries. 

There was nothing of a political na- 
ture in Sallie's letter, and he at once 
concluded that the correspondence was 
a merely personal one ; for he had yet 
to discover the resume of his conver- 
sation with her on the council of war, 
which report still rested undiscovered 
in one of the pockets of the ulster. It 
struck him that here was an excellent 
way of mailing his despatches. He 
wrote late into the night, making re- 
ductions of the maps which he had 
drawn of the different redoubts, on the 
thinnest of paper, and copying only 
the most important parts of his report 
He enclosed these papers in a short letter 




AN UNWELCOME DISCOVERY. 



in the finest short-hand. 

to Sallie, which ran as follows : — 

Paris, September 26. 
Dearest Fraulein, — I am in Paris, a spy, and I owe my present safety 
to you. I throw myself upon your mercy. Do not mention me in any letter 
to your friends ; but if you would do me a great kindness, take the enclosed 
papers to the secretary of the Crown Prince, and you will be liberally rewarded. 
" Wenn i' wiedrum komm " all shall be explained, and I pledge myself to effect 
your safe return to your friends. Heartily yours, 

Ernst Muller. 

Carefully concealing the papers, he slept for a few hours ; but as 
the first streak of dawn reddened the eastern sky, he slipped into a 



HUNTING A SPY. 



91 



wrapper, climbed to the loft, and fastening his' despatches to one of 
the Ferrieres pigeons, sent it on its way. He had just time to return, 
and was standing with his hand on the studio door, when James 
Osborne passed him on his way to the loft. 

" A lucky escape ! " he muttered to himself. " What if he had caught 
me sending off the bird ? I am afraid my appearance was hardly as 
trim as a young lady's should be." 

As he proceeded in a leisurely way to make his toilet, and sur- 
veyed himself carelessly in the little hand-glass, he started suddenly, 
then gazed more earnestly, while an expression of deep apprehension 
overspread his face. He had brought no shaving materials with him, 
and his mustache and beard were beginning to grow. 



CHAPTER VL 



AT VERSAILLES. 




OME French sharp-shooters had made a 
sortie from Fort Bicetre ; and as SalUe 
approached Sceaux, on her roundabout way 
from Ferrieres to Versailles, she saw the 
puffs and wreaths of smoke from their 
guns, as they lay hidden behind hillocks 
and stumps. Mere Babette wisely turned 
far to the left, and they reached Villa 
Beaumont without further incident. Here 
Sallie was most hospitably received by the 
Countess, who had met her in Paris, and 
who had become much interested in the 
Americans through her husband's letters, which had been filled with 
their praises. As the Comte de Beaumont was an indefatigable cor- 
respondent, keeping a journal, which he mailed to his wife in semi- 
weekly instalments until mail communication- was cut off, Madame 
de Beaumont was well informed concerning the tastes, intelligence, 
good-breeding, kindness of heart, and bravery of our friends, all 
of which the Count enlarged upon ecstatically. What interested 
Madame still more, was the fact that her son, who after the disap- 
pearance of Clemence had pronounced himself a woman-hater, showed 
by an occasional allusion to the young American ladies, that they 
had roused a languid and melancholy interest in a heart which he 
supposed to be damaged beyond repair. 



AT VERSAILLES. 



93 



Madame de Beaumont shared her husband's opinions in regard 
to the advisabihty of an American marriage for Jules, and she 
was curious to ascertain which of the three young ladies — any 
one of whom she considered eligible under the circumstances — 
was most favored by her son and most kindly disposed to him. 
Therefore when Sallie presented herself at the villa, though she 
was as unexpected, as Madame expressed it, as if she had de- 
scended herself from the heavens, she was still very welcome ; 
and when her guest explained that all she begged was tempo- 
rary shelter until she could either rejoin her friends or go to 
England, Madame, although protesting that she would do everything 
in her power to forward Sallie's wishes, was inwardly grateful that 
there was no immediate prospect of their realization. As Sallie 
wished most ardently to enter Paris, she made no immediate attempt 
to leave the country ; and as she knew that to effect her desire would 
take time, she was very grateful to the Countess for her hospitality. 

The Countess herself was an old woman, very imposing when in 
full dress ; but with her false teeth tucked away in her toilet-case, 
her gray hair carelessly thrust into a morning-cap, a shapeless gown 
replacing the whalebone and satin which added so much to her 
appearance, Sallie could not help thinking that Madame resembled 
one of the ruined French palaces. It was a grotesque idea, but the 
same thing had occurred to the Countess. 

" Now that you have come, cherie',' she said, " I shall have the cour- 
age to assert the dignity of France. I have been too easily discour- 
aged; and feeling that all was lost with the Imperial family, have 
abandoned myself to the desolation of neglige. I should have had 
more character, and have shown the invaders that la patrie never dies. 
Ah ! if I only had my clever little maid Clemence, she would design 
a costume and a coiffure appropriate to this occasion." 

Madame took down her cap-box, and began the construction of 
a head-dress which should express her ideas of the suitable. " No 



94 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



lavender ribbons," she said decisivel3^ " Purple expresses grief, resig- 
nation: cardinal stands for patriotism, courage, verve; cardinal it 
shall be ; " and Madame displayed her 2:)rinciples by loading her 

cap with eveYy scrap of 
red in the bandbox. 

The villa was charm- 
ingly situated on a little 
eminence, which gave it a 
wide outlook. The Pal- 
ace of Versailles, with its 
parks and gardens, was 
near at hand ; to the left 
St. Cloud and Sevres were 
plainly visible, and on the 
right, the heights of Meu- 
don w^ere a continuation 
of the range of hills on 
which Villa Beaumont was 
built. The Seine made a 
long loop below them, en- 
closing the Bois de Bou- 
logne, guarded by the forts 
of Mont Valerien on the 
w^est and d'Issy on the east; while all the spires and domes of Paris 
were spread out in beautiful panorama in the distance. The sun glit- 
tered on the gilded dome of the Invalides (the asylum of Napoleon's 
veterans), and she could distinctly make out the Luxembourg and 
its gardens. Somewhere between those two points were her friends. 
(See map inside cover.) This view was obtained from the roof of 
the villa; for the garden was surrounded, in the French fashion, with 
a high stone wall and a row of poplar-trees, which effectually cut 
off the magnificent scene, even from the second-story windows. 




THE COUNTESS. 




RUINS OF ST. CLOUD. 



AT VERSAILLES. 97 

Every morning Sallie repaired to the roof, talcing with her a good 
spy-glass which had been found in Monsieur's study, and was handed 
her by Jacques the butler, who was now man-of-all-work ; the other 
servants having deserted the villa, with the exception of Pierre the 
gardener. Mere Babette's brother, who was still at the gate lodge, 
and to whose care Sallie intrusted the few carrier pigeons which 
were still left her. 

Madame pointed out to her the ruins of the Palace of St. Cloud. 
" They need never try," she said, " to make me believe that the 
French destroyed it. Of course it was the Prussians ; no French- 
men would have bombarded the favorite residence of the Empress. 
Ah, you should have seen it when she resided there ! Many a time 
have I been honored by invitations to the palace, and once she 
attended a fete under this very roof. I have guarded sacredly the 
spoon with which she stirred her eau S7ccre, the tiny glass from which 
she sipped cura9oa, the fauteuil in which she sat. But the fauteuil, 
which I have ever since regarded as the throne of an empress, I for- 
got (in the haste with which I vacated our principal apartments to 
the invaders) to remove, and that great bear, Colonel von Lindenthal, 
has appropriated it to his obnoxious person. I had Jacques bring 
it upstairs and substitute another; but the impious one ordered 
it returned to the billiard-room, as he had taken a fancy to it. 
Figure to yourself the sacrilege ! " 

To Madame's disappointment, Sallie was more interested in Ver- 
sailles than in St. Cloud. It was very tantalizing not to be able to 
visit it; but this was impossible, as it was now a Prussian hospital. 
Like Captain MUller, she longed to see everything connected with 
the history of Marie Antoinette, especially the dairy in the park, 
where the child-queen played at being a milkmaid. Sallie won- 
dered to what use the Prussians would put the Salon de la Guerre, 
in the grand palace, with its ceiling by Lebrun, representing France 
chastising Spain, Holland, and Germany; and how, she asked 



98 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

Madame de Beaumont, would they enjoy the Galerie de I'Empire, 
with its great canvases representing the exploits of Napoleon I., 
the battle of Marengo, and the Passage of the Great St. Bernard, 
and the Grand Galerie des Batailles, and the suite dedicated to the 
" Amiraux et Marechaux de France"? 

" Cest frt;," replied Madame, smiling grimly. " On parlera de sa 
gloire. They do well to fit up the long galleries for the wounded ; 
they wdll have need of all the room. But to think of those beasts 
of Prussians occupying them, and grazing in the royal park, smoking 
their pipes and eating their sausages in the presence of our beautiful 
statuary, as though it were a beer-garden ! It is that which I find 
unbearable." 

" Even if they are wounded ? " Sallie suggested. 

" Even if they are wounded ! " Madame replied. " They should 
be taken care of by the society for the prevention of cruelty to 
animals, and well stabled, but not in our palace." 

It was by such outbursts as this that Madame relieved her mind 
in private, for she was the unwilling hostess of a colonel of Uhlans 
with his officers. These gentlemen had taken possession of the 
principal rooms of the villa, leaving to Madame the suite in the 
Mansard formerly occupied by the servants. Hitherto Madame had 
preferred to confine herself to this floor ; but on Sallie's arrival she 
decided to maintain the appearance of still being mistress of her own 
house. She accordingly sent word to the Colonel,' that with his 
permission Madame would preside at the meals served in the general 
dining-room, and that Mademoiselle would accompany her. The 
Countess did not ignore the fact that the table was furnished by 
the officers' rations, and the food cooked by German soldiers. It 
was a humiliating thing, doubtless, to be fed by the enemy ; but 
Madame felt that in lodging them she gave ample compensation for 
the sustenance of herself and household; and meagre indeed would 
have been the fare which she could have offered her guest, but 



AT VERSAILLES. 



99 



for the invaders. Pierre had a store of potatoes, and Jacques fihed 
the decanters with vin ordinaire ; but the markets of Versailles pre- 
sented a melancholy array of empty hooks, for the beeves and flocks 
of the country round had been driven to Paris. The Prussian 




WOUNDED GERMANS IN THE PARK AT VERSAILLES, 



commissary department, however, was wide-reaching and active, and 
the table at the villa groaned with huge joints and mammoth pasties. 

Colonel von Lindenthal was a great burly man, with a gruff voice 
and a soft heart. He was pleased to have the ladies at the table, 
though he had no faith in Madame's politeness, while Saliie puzzled 
him exceedingly. He assured Madame, on his arrival, that his stay 



lOO THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

would be short ; the Germans would be in Paris in three weeks. But 
the three weeks lengthened themselves to six ; and now he could 
no longer find in the garden the violets, which he enclosed every 
week in his letters to his worthy Frau. He liked to walk in the 
handsome garden, Pierre's pride, and he sharply reproved some of 
the young officers who galloped across the pansy-bed. Sallie was 
sure that he was kind and good, for she saw him one morning 
making friends with Pierre's youngest child, a mere snip of a little 
girl, who had been told that the colonel was a great bear, but who 
put her little hand confidingly in his great one on seeing the merry 
twinkle in his eye, and said trustingly, " Tu nes pas tin ours., toi., 
because you have no fur and no claws." 

The autumn wind had whistled down the yellow leaves, and 
Colonel von Lindenthal now wore a fur coat in his garden prome- 
nades ; but Lisette was still sure that he was not a bear, for he gave 
her candies, and chucked her under the chin with his meerschaum. 
Still, this was only his occasional aspect, and Sallie was conscious that 
the atmosphere about her was one of grim war. Orderlies were con- 
stantly coming and going, troops marched by or were reviewed in 
sight of their windows, and from her outlook on the roof Sallie 
could see the redoubts and forts which the Prussians were con- 
structing. Nor was this all ; fighting had actually begun. She 
would never forget the first boom, boom, of heavy artillery, and 
Pierre's excited face as he told her that there had been a skirmish 
only two miles away. Later, she became accustomed to such sounds, 
and learned to distinguish the reports of the mitrailleuses, and to 
judge from the white cloud-bursts how far away a shell had fallen. In 
these days she could hardly tell which side claimed her sympathies 
most. When Colonel von Lindenthal announced at table that a regi- 
ment of Flensburg Hussars had been surprised at Rambouillet by 
Franctireurs, and cut to pieces, Madame's look of exultation seemed to 
her absolutely fiendish, and she could not help expressing her sorrow. 



AT VERSAILLES. 



103 



But when Mathilde came flying in one afternoon in October to 
say that a sortie from Paris was in progress in the direction of St. 
Cloud and Boumval, and that if successful the French soldiers mioht 
march into Versailles before nightfall, she was almost as wildly excited 
as Madame; and she would have greeted Jules de Beaumont with 
genuine delight if he had charged up the avenue at the head of his 
cuirassiers. Often her unsettled feelings expressed 
themselves in controversy, and she argued with 
Madame in favor of the Germans, or crossed swords 
with Colonel von Lindenthal until he was really 
angry. There came a morning when she was 
obliged to ask herself seriously with which side she 
was to be identified. 

She had happened to mention that she was 
fond of horseback riding ; and Lieutenant Schwarz, 
one of the younger officers, had in his foraging 
expeditions possessed himself of a side-saddle, 
which he placed on his own horse and begged 
her to use. Sallie was a little surprised at this 
attention, for she had an idea that Lieutenant 
Schwarz did not like her. He watched her 
narrowly, and weighed all her chance remarks 
in what seemed to her no friendly manner. 

" Yes, come with us for a gallop," said the 
Colonel ; " I am going over to visit the ruins of the Palace of St. 
Cloud, which the French have themselves destroyed because they 
imagined that we were making it a strategic point. As though we 
could not plant our batteries just as well in its ruins ! " 

Sallie needed no second invitation ; and though Madame looked 
her disapproval, she nevertheless produced a riding-skirt and assisted 
Sallie in making a becoming appearance. Away cantered the party, 
the young officer who had furnished the horse and saddle following 




LIEUTENANT SCHWARZ. 



I04 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

in the Colonel's suite, swords and armor jingling, the air clear 
and cold, — for the rain-clouds had lifted, — and the hoofs clattering 
on the stony pavements. Sallie's horse was disposed to resent the 
petticoat at first; but the Colonel laid his hand on the bridle, and 
he obeyed the leader's hand. Once out of Versailles they found the 
roads cut into ruts by the passing of heavy artillery, and the mud 
horrible. They passed Sevres, with its world-renowned porcelain fac- 
tory partly demolished, the studio of the Director, the father of Henri 
Regnault the artist, destroyed, and the guard, recognizing the Colonel, 
allowed them to pass on to St. Cloud. Here w^iole streets were con- 
verted into long lines of debris, ghastly walls standing here and there 
where Eugenie's beautiful palace had been. The Colonel dismounted 
before a cave inside a redoubt, and invited Sallie to enter. " You will 
find it interesting," he said, and so it was. The cave was the sleeping- 
apartment of the men, and it had been furnished with articles from 
the palace, — gilt and satin fauteuils, muddy with the marks of riding- 
boots, beautiful branching candelabra containing tallow-dips, and an 
upright piano forming a part of the barricade. 

"Would you like a souvenir of St. Cloud .^" asked one of the 
soldiers ; and he handed her a broken Sevres saucer with a gilt N 
surmounted by a crown on one side. 

While they stood chatting, the boom of the cannon sounded very 
near. 

"Those are the big guns of Mont Valerien," said one of the 
men. " They fire constantly, but they seldom hit anything. The 
gunboats on the Seine do more damage. It is not altogether safe 
just here. We are all eager for permission to begin our side of the 
bombardment." 

As he spoke, a bomb burst near them and killed one of the 
horses belonging to the party, and which an orderly was holding. 
It was only a horse ; but it was a sickening sight, and Sallie turned 
pale. 




ST. CLOUD AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT. 



AT VERSAILLES. 



107 



" We will go home," said the Colonel ; " I had no idea that things 
were so lively here this morning, or I would not have brought you." 

As they were returning, a balloon from Paris sailed over their 
heads, at a not very great distance above them. 

" Something is the matter," said the Colonel ; " it will come to the 
ground soon. Suppose we give chase." 

The balloon drifted in the direction of a long road leading toward 
Rambouillet, and down this the party raced, taking to the fields after 
a time. 

" I have ridden to hounds in England," said Sallie to the Colonel, 
" and have been buffalo-hunting in Kansas, but have never chased a 
balloon before." 

The aeronauts, two in number, were seen to throw out ballast. 
One of the Uhlans fired several pistol-shots into the air. 

"Don't let him kill the men!" gasped Sallie; but she saw presently 
that he was only aiming at the balloon. The gas was escaping through 
the rents made by the shots, and it was settling to the ground. The 
two voyageurs were immediately seized and marched away at the 
Colonel's orders. A mail-bag taken from the car he ordered to be 
carried to the villa, and the party turned again toward Versailles. 

"What will be done with the men. Colonel.^" Sallie ventured to ask. 

" Treated as spies," was the short reply. 

" Not hanged } " Sallie asked aghast. 

"Why not.? They were going to Tours to arrange for aid and 
comfort for the enemy. These letters will implicate them sufficiently 
to condemn them before any military tribunal. Schwarz here will 
carry them, and accompany you to the villa. I must go on to Count 
von Bismarck's lodgings. If you will look over these letters in the 
mean time, and lay those which appear to be official by themselves, I 
will be greatly obliged. I do not read French readily, and there is no 
need of my wading through private and family correspondence." 

Sallie rode home much saddened. She had only had the mildest 



I08 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

possible suggestion of war, and yet it seemed to her a very horrible 
thing. The struggles of the dying horse, the blood, the noise of the 
bursting shell, were all very vividly impressed on her mind, and the 
sight of the white faces of the two Frenchmen led away to their death 
was still more suggestive. 

" You are pale," said Lieutenant Schwarz, as he helped her to 
dismount. " The ride has tired you." 

Sallie hardly noticed the remark, but sat down in the billiard-room, 
which Colonel von Lindenthal used as an ofhce, and buried herself in 
the intercepted letters. What a revelation they were of the state of 
affairs in Paris, — not alone the communications to the " Government 
of National Defence " in Tours, but the private letters from separated 
members of families ! She knew that many of these letters would im- 
plicate people supposed to be non-combatants, and a temptation seized 
her to suppress some of them, in spite of a conviction that in doing so 
she would be violating the confidence which Colonel von Lindenthal 
was placing in her. How hard it was to tell just what was right! As 
she read on in her uncertainty the tears welled to her eyes, and she 
shoved her chair suddenly from the table, feeling that she had no right 
to spy into private histories, especially where suffering and sorrow 
rendered them sacred. Resolutely she held her hands and sat staring 
at the heap of unopened letters, while she wondered whether, after all, 
it was best to let such an opportunity go by unimproved. After a 
time the Colonel entered, followed by a soldier bearing the German 
mail-bag bulging with many strange objects sent him by his good 
Frau ; a fur-lined foot-muff (in which he might insert his toes while 
writing his despatches, a sensible precaution against colds in this 
unwarmed and draughty villa), together with various drinkables and 
eatables which were sent to the butler's pantry. 

He gave Sallie a keen glance. "You have not made much head- 
way with the letters," he said. " I should have thought that woman's 
curiosity might have carried you further." 



AT VERSAILLES. 



109 



Sallie told him her feeling of delicacy at reading letters not 
intended for her eye, indicated the political papers, and begged that 
the others might be destroyed unopened. The Colonel listened 
attentively. 

" You are a high-minded girl," he replied ; " I would not have be- 
lieved it possible for a woman with French sympathies to neglect 
such an opportunity for assisting her friends. I have watched you 
all the time from my bedroom yonder. That transom lined with 
black silk reflects as perfectly as a mirror everything that is done at 
this table. You have not attempted to destroy or secrete a single 
paper. After this, I trust you wholly. You are not the sort of 
woman to make a spy." 

Sallie crimsoned. " What must I think of you, Colonel von Lin- 
denthal, for having acted the spy with me ? " she asked archly. 

" We men are not so nice in our code as we would have women 
be ; and some one — no matter who — has advised me to watch you," 
he replied, smiling. " I am sorry that I cannot indulge your request 
to have these letters burned ; I have decided that I must send the bag 
as it is to headquarters. And now will you kindly order dinner, for 
my ride has given me a keen appetite 1 " 

Not so to poor Sallie. The excitement of the day had brought the 
color temporarily to her cheeks ; but as she thought of her friends in 
the beleaguered city, subsisting on cat and dog ragout, with steaks of 
horse, — and here the vision of the slaughtered animal came freshly 
before her mind, — she loathed the fulsome dainties with which their 
table was loaded : the Frankfurter blutwurst, the pate de foie gras, 
the great trout pasty, and the kirschen-wasser, which had just been sent 
from the Fatherland. 

She rose from the table almost nauseated, and was about to run up- 
stairs to her turret, when Jacques coughed meaningly and remarked, 
" If you please, Mademoiselle, Pierre has some tulips at the hot-house 
which he would like to show you." 



no 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



" Tulips at this season ! " she exclaimed in surprise. 

Jacques was seized again with his fit of coughing, and Lieutenant 

Schwarz wheeled about and beat him with rough kindliness upon his 

back until he coughed in such good earnest that the tears came to his 

eyes. Something in their imploring look seemed to say, " Will she 

insist on not understanding } " And Sallie, nodding 

reassuringly, went out into the rainy October night 

to see the tulips. 

There was no one at the greenhouse, but a light 
shone at the gate lodge. Sallie tried the door, and 
wondered to find it barred. Pierre opened it pres- 
ently. "-Voila, ma tulipe',' he said, smiling; and there, 
crouching by the fireplace, in a great cloak, and 
telling her beads as though she were at church, was 
Mere Babette. 

The good woman was overjoyed at seeing Sallie 
once more. " I have brought you a box of pills," 
she said, chuckling, " for your rheumatism ; " at the 
same time handing Sallie a box of a very uninvit- 
ing appearance. 

" But I never have rheumatism," the young girl replied, much 
mystified. 

Mere Babette goggled frightfully in her merriment. " I thought 
at first of putting it in a pot de confitures, confittires de cerises, 
and then I thought how silly that would be; of course the first 
guard would insist on eating it ; but three of them have smelled of 
that pill and handed it back to me. That is not the pomade of 
the Empress that — " 

" I should think not," Sallie replied, turning up her nose. " Is it 
asafoetida ? " 

"Those pills are made, among other ingredients, of scorched pigeon 
feathers, — the wing-feathers of carrier pigeons. If Mademoiselle will 




JACQUES. 



AT VERSAILLES. 



113 



take them in the privacy of her own apartment, I am sure they will 
do her rheumatism much good." 

Sallie understood at last; but fearing from her experience of that 
afternoon that she might still be under the espionage of Colonel von 
Lindenthal, she made no demonstration, but pressed some money 
upon Mere Babette, and thanked her heartily for the pains she had 
taken in behalf of her rheumatism. 

" I think I have good news for you, Mere Babette," she said, before 
she left. " I have been thinking over the matter very seriously, and I 
verily believe that I know your daughter. If she is the Clemence 
that I am thinking of, she is making her living in Paris honestly 
and bravely." They talked together, discussing characteristics until 
each was convinced. " I shall fly one of my pigeons to-morrow," said 
Sallie, " and I will ask the girls to send you word ; the next pigeon- 
) post will surely bring you good tidings." 

Mere Babette covered Sallie with blessings, and the young girl 
reached her room apparently without having been followed or sus- 
pected. On pouring the pills into a little lacquer tray which Madame 
used for her rings, she discovered the tiny packet which had come 
from Paris by pigeon-post. It was from Mr. Osborne, doubtless, or 
Mrs. Davenport ; but what was her surprise, on removing the casing 
of gold-beater's skin, to find Captain Miiller's maps and report, which 
he had so confidingly intrusted to her care. In her astonishment 
she almost laughed aloud. " Colonel von Lindenthal has said that 
I am not the stuff of which spies are made," she thought to herself ; 
I " and if I can resist the temptation of being one for the French, 

I certainly shall not fill that friendly office for the Germans." 

I She lighted a waxen taper which the Countess was accustomed 

, to use for sealing letters, and holding the Captain's report in the 

I flame by means of a pair of curling-tongs, prepared to consume the 

entire packet. A smile which was half at his unsuspecting nature, 

and half at her own, curled her lips as she performed this auto-da-fe. 

8 



114 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

" So he was a spy all along," she thought, " and he introduced him- 
self into Paris by means of my papers and hat and cloak. He must 
make a droll-looking girl ; how I should like to see him ! I wonder 
whether he resembles me? Surely Mrs. Davenport and the girls 
do not mistake him for me. He begs I will not mention him when 
I write. Well, I will not do so if it will endanger his life, but I 
certainly shall not help him in his profession ; and how can I ever 
pay him off for his effrontery } " 

Captain Miiller's papers were burning brightly, when Sallie was 
startled by a noise behind, and looking up into the toilet-glass, she 
saw Lieutenant Schwarz open the door. 

" I beg your pardon, Fralilein," he said, taking the flaming paper 
from her limp hand and extinguishing it in the ewer ; " but I was 
curious to see these October tulips. That was a very pretty tableau 
of indifference which you arranged over the letter-bag for Colonel 
von Lindenthal ; but my suspicions are not so easily laid." 

" Lieutenant," Sallie could only stammer, " you have no right on 
this floor, nor to my private correspondence. I shall appeal to the 
Countess de Beaumont," — the lieutenant smiled sarcastically, — " and 
to Colonel von Lindenthal." 

The Lieutenant elevated his eyebrows. " The Colonel shall de- 
cide," he replied airily ; " but meantime the letter, what there is left 
of it, has its little story to tell. You will assure me, doubtless, that 
this is merely a billet-doux in which I have no concern : young ladies 
have a habit of burning love-letters, I believe ; but the manner in 
which it was brought was somewhat mysterious, and war must excuse 
many otherwise unwarrantable liberties." 

He touched his hat with mock gallantry and disappeared, leaving 
Sallie making a vain effort to collect her scattered senses. 



CHAPTER VII. 



SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 





APTAIN MULLER had more reason to be 
alarmed than amused by the predicament 
in which he found himself. In some way 
he must manage to shave, and meantime 
he must keep strictly hidden. He determined to 
remain in the studio until he could hear Mr. Osborne 
leave his room, and then to descend and search his 
apartment for a razor. Every minute which he 
passed in Paris was at the risk of his life. There 
was an over-attentive gendarme standing in front of 
the Duval restaurant, who always regarded him par- 
ticularly, and, as it seemed to Captain Miiller, sus- 
piciously, when he passed in and out. In point of 
fact the gendarme was merely expressing a gallant admiration ; but 
the spy's nerves were overstrung, and he felt himself watched by every 
one. There was still important information to be gathered. He was 
sure that sorties were planned; if he could learn from Jules de Beau- 
mont in what direction and on what dates, it would be well for him 
to remain in Paris for some time to come. Oddly enough, he had 
taken Sallie's co-operation entirely for granted. She was not French, 
he argued, and could have no scruples against aiding the Germans, 
especially as in so doing she would secure their consent to her rejoin- 
ing her friends. 



Il6 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

Naturally she would be surprised on learning that he was a spy. 
She had been so frank and unsuspecting with him, and had so in- 
nocently told him just what he wanted to' know, that he felt rather 
ashamed of himself for having taken advantage of her transparent 
character ; but she had seemed so friendly that he was sure he could 
make his peace with her, and his own mental superiority in having so 
completely deceived her quite amused him. The chagrin which she 
would probably feel at being hoodwinked would, he was sure, be 
accompanied by an appreciation of his own genius, which Captain 
Mlilier's vanity led him to think might even amount to admiration. 
He was conscious that Bavarian fralileins had considered him a hand- 
some man ; he thought it quite possible that he might have seemed 
so to this young and presumably impressionable American girl. He 
was quite sure, on the whole, that she would be willing to do him 
a favor. He had come to consider his theft of her ulster and hat 
as a voluntary loan on her part, and he carefully shook and brushed 
the cloak hoping that he had not injured it. As he did so, a paper 
fell from the pocket. He picked it up and smoothed it out carefully, 
— for he knew that it had belonged to Sallie, and he intended to pre- 
serve it for her, — when something in its appearance struck him. 
The names of Bismarck and other prominent Germans stared him 
in the face. Why had Miss Sallie written them down } He opened 
the paper, feeling that this was something which he had a right to 
know. What was his astonishment to find that it was a report to 
Mr. James Osborne of his own conversation in regard to the Ger- 
man Council of War at Ferrieres, which Sallie had impulsively 
made but had not sent. The conclusion was evident: this guile- 
less, unsuspicious American girl was herself a spy, and a very clever 
one. As he read on, he was mortified to note how he who had just 
now prided himself on his own superior subtlety had been wax in 
her hands, and, completely outwitted, had actually confided to her 
important secrets. 



SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 



119 



" Donnerwetter ! " he exclaimed, ruffling up his hair and holding 
his head in his hands, " I am indeed a fool ! " In his disgust he 
stamped upon the floor, forgetting how strangely this would sound 
to Mr. Osborne. The more he thought of the situation the more 
angry he became. " She has not only perfect communication with 
French headquarters, but I have betrayed myself into her hands, and 
have actually sent her my despatches, which the next pigeon-post may 
wing back to French headquarters with an order for my arrest." 

Would Sallie do this ? He could hardly believe her so cruel, but 
the fact remained that he was completely in her power. Safety com- 
pelled him to leave Paris at once. He dressed hurriedly, then looking 
at his reflection in the glass sat down in despair. At that instant 
some one tapped on the door. Had they already come to arrest 
him } He looked around desperately for some means of escape, and 
Alice's gentle voice asked, — 

"Are you ill, Miss Miller.? Would you like to have your break- 
fast sent up .f* " 

" Thank you," the Captain replied ; " I would like a cup of coflee. 
I am not feeling very well this morning," 

Alice disappeared. " She will be sure to want to come in," 
thought the distracted Captain ; " now, what shall I do ? " He muffled 
his face in a towel and opened the door when Alice returned with 
a tray. 

" What is the matter ? " the young girl asked sympathetically. 

" I think it is neuralgia in the face," the Captain replied men- 
daciously. 

" It does look swollen," Alice remarked ; " perhaps it comes from a 
bad tooth. Do let Mrs. Davenport look at it." 

" That will hardly be necessary," said the Captain ; " I have applied 
a mustard plaster. I am sure it will be better soon." 

Alice waited a few moments ; then seeing that Miss Miller was 
not inclined to partake of her breakfast while she remained, she apolo- 



I20 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 




gized for its meagreness (it consisted only of coffee and a roll), saying 
that Madame Duval could give them meat only once a day now, and 
added : " I am so sorry you cannot go out with us this morning. We 
are going with Mr. Osborne to hear Mass said at the Madeleine before 
the Breton peasant regiments, the very bravest of our defenders, and 
on our way back we shall visit the Prussian prisoners. I thought you 

would enjoy that part of the morning's 
programme. You might have found 
some old friends." 

" You forget how dangerous such 
recognition m.ight prove for me," Cap- 
tain MUller replied, with more reason 
than Alice imagined; and the kind- 
hearted American girl reluctantly left 
the studio. 

As she descended the 
stair she saw a young- 
French girl, Julie Rob- 
ert, feedingher cats, Chif- 
fon (Rag) and Gourmet 
(Epicure), in the court. 
Julie acknowledged the 
nod of recosfnition which Alice made her from the hall window. 

" Are they not nice and fat ? " she asked, pointing to the cats. 
" Madame Duval has offered me ten francs apiece for them." 

" I did not know Madame Duval was fond of pets," Alice re- 
plied, in some surprise. 

" They are not for pets," Julie replied, " but to make rabbit 
stew of." 

Alice choked. And that delicious ragout de lapm, which they had 
enjoyed at dinner, was actually pussy ! How very Chinese their menu 
was becoming ! It made her think of — 



CHIFFON AND GOURMET. 



SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 



121 



" Ping Wing, the Chinaman's son, 
The very worst boy in all Canton, 
He stole his mother's pickled mice, 
And put the cat in the boiling rice; 
And when they 'd eaten her, said he, 
' Me wonders where that mew-cat be.' " 

Soon after Alice had descended, Captain Mijller heard James 
Osborne leave his room, and a little later he saw a cab drive away 
from the front door. Feeling that now was his opportunity, he silently 
slipped down one flight of stairs, and finding that Mr. Osborne had 
left his door unlocked, entered, and after a little search discovered a 
razor, which he immediately appropriated, and hastily left the apart- 
ment. As he did so, the door at the other end of the entry opened, 
and he found himself face 
to face with Alphonse, 
who was hurrying down- 
stairs to drive the party 
to the Madeleine, the cab 
which had just left the 
door not having been Mrs- 
Davenport's carriage, as 
Captain M tiller had too 
hastily imagined. 

Alphonse was much 
surprised and even scan- 
dalized at seeing the young 
German lady issue from 
Mr. Osborne's room. He could not imagine why she had her head 
muffled in so extraordinary a way, and the razor in her hand did not 
escape his notice. 

The footman had a tragic imagination, and he immediately con- 
cocted a half-dozen different romances and tragedies, all having for 
their main plot the idea that Miss Miller wished either to murder 




ALPHONSE RELATES HIS SUSPICIONS. 



122 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



some one, or to commit suicide. Accordingly he called on Mr. 
Osborne that evening and communicated his observations. The 
young newspaper correspondent was more amused than alarmed. 

" She does not look like a murderess," he said ; " let us wait a little 
and see if she returns my razor, and whether she takes anything else. 
Perhaps she is a kleptomaniac, and has a passion for pilfering." 

Alphonse, feel- 
ing that he had not 
enough evidence to 
make out a case, 
determined to say 
> nothing at present 
to the ladies about 
his suspicions, but 
to keep a good 
watch on the stran- 
ger, and to caution 
Clemence to lock 
■ up very carefully 
at night. Captain 
Miiller, after delib- 
erate consideration 
of the risks, deter- 
mined to remain, 
keeping a strict 
watch, however, on the pigeon-post, and reading every despatch from 
Sallie before it reached the eye of James Osborne. Having used the 
razor to good effect, he appeared at dinner in his assumed character, 
and casually remarked to Alphonse at their next meeting that he had 
looked into Mr. Osborne's room because he fancied he detected the 
smell of something burning. He looked so girlishly innocent that 
the footman's suspicions gradually relaxed. He nevertheless took the 




AT BOURGET. 



SUSPICIOUS -CIRCUMSTANCES. 1 23 

precaution to stretch some threads across the studio door that evening 
after Miss Miller retired ; but as he found them unbroken early the 
next morning, he was convinced that the strange young woman had 
not left her room, and matters went on at the Maison Duval for some 
time quite as usual. 

Captain Miiller made his observations during the day, but did not 
hazard sending them away. The policy of Jules Favre to hold out 
and surrender ni un pouce du te^riioire, ni une pierre des fortresses^ 
seemed to be heartily sustained by the citizens ; and he perceived that 
it would be a harder thing for the Prussians to take Paris than they 
had at first imagined. Even when the Prussians obtained by force 
what the French would not yield by treaty, and Strasbourg and 
Toul had fallen, the Parisians were not disheartened. It was evi- 
dent that they anticipated the possibility of an assault ; for not only 
was the Bois de Boulogne fortified, but the Avenue de I'lmpera- 
trlce was blocked with barricades and ditches, and made impassable 
for cavalry with just such contrivances as Caesar describes in his 
Gallic Wars, — holes at brief intervals, with pointed stakes fastened 
in the centre. 

Then came the affair of Bourget, on the north of Paris, — at first 
a victory for the French, the village having been taken by Franc- 
tireurs and Mobiles, on the 28th of October; but two days later 
they were routed by the Germans, with a loss of over five hundred 
French. 

Jules de Beaumont understood now that the campaign for which 
he had enlisted was not a mere holiday parade, but grim war. He 
had not yet been called into action ; but he tasted the rigors and 
privations of a soldier's life, of much guard dut}^ of sleeping in the 
open, of hard fare, and the consciousness of ever-present danger. 
The Maison Duval saw him less frequently, the gilt was worn from 
his uniform, he had grown brown and lean, and Melicent ceased to 
make fun of him ; he had developed from a popinjay into something 



124 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

very like a man. The Count visited them frequently, and talked 
much about his son, who, he said, had definitely made up his mind 
to seek his fortunes in America as soon as the war was over. 

Mrs. Davenport attempted in vain to discourage this plan. There 
were so many young men seeking their fortunes in America, she 
said ; but M. le Comte confided that Jules would not be sent entirely 
empty-handed. " It is my aim to establish him as one of the editors 
of some successful journal, of which he should be part proprietor. 
He writes English remarkably ; Madame should see his essays writ- 
ten at the pension, — they are absolutely incroyable ! " 

There was some one else who was looking through all this trouble 
and uncertainty to America as a possible haven of safety. Clemence 
said to Alice one morning, " Ah ! Mademoiselle, when you return 
to your own country, I would be enchanted if you would take me 
with you." 

" And the poor old mother, Clemence ? " 

" I will see her first, Mademoiselle, and when I have explained 
everything, she will be glad to let me go, especially as I mean to 
make a home for her over yonder." 

" What will you do in America, poor child.? " 

" I have thought of that. I could be a hairdresser. You Ameri- 
can ladies have such beautiful hair ! The hairdresser who waited on 
Madame la Comtesse at the villa had once served in that capacity 
to the Empress, and. she taught me everything she knew ; she said 
that I had great dispositions. If Mademoiselle will allow me, I will 
do her hair this morning in six different styles, and she will have 
opportunity to judge of my talent. En Pompadour, with a touch of 
powder. Mademoiselle would be ravishing ; or, if she would allow 
me to use the curling-tongs, I could dress her hair exactly in 
the style which was most becoming to the Empress. When she 
visited our villa I had the honor to assist one morning at her 
toilette. I even held the hairpins ; and as I realized the magnitude 



SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 



125 



of the occasion, the way in which the curls were arranged is so 

exactly photographed upon my memory, that I shall never forget it. 

I would be so grateful if Mademoiselle would allow me to attempt 

a reproduction, a reminiscence of the imperial coiffure." She threw 

herself into a tragic 

attitude, regarded 

Alice seriously for 

a few moments, and 

then exclaimed, " But 

no, the Spanish style 

is more becoming to 

Mademoiselle ; with 

a high comb and a 

bit of black lace she 

would be a dream." 

Alice yielded, glad 
to please little Clem- 
ence, at the same 
time wondering how 
any one could be so 
light-hearted and 
trivial. But Clem- 
ence, with all her ap- 
pearance of frivolity, 
was revolving mat- 
ters of deep impor- 
tance to herself. She 
gave the coiffure an 

affectionate pat, and proceeded in a hesitating manner : " Mademoi- 
selle has been so good, has interested herself so much in my insig- 
nificant affairs, that I would be deeply grateful if Mademoiselle 
would do me one more great favor." 




ALICE WRITES TO MERE BABETTE. 



126 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

" Something about America, Clemence ? " 

"No, Mademoiselle; but if you will write a letter for me to my 
old mother at Ferrieres, and send it by a pigeon, — ah ! that would 
be heavenly kind." 

" I will write it, Clemence, and hand it to Mr. Osborne. I think 
he will be willing to send it with his next packet ; but you know he 
is saving his pigeons very jealously, for he has only a limited number, 
and we do not know how long the siege may last, or what exigencies 
may arise for communication with the outside world. Nevertheless, 
I think he will send it ; " and Alice seated herself at her writing- 
table, making a charming picture, as she asked, " What do you want 
me to say to your mother, Clemence t " 

" Tell her that I am sorry that I did not tell her at first where 
I was going, and that I hope she will forgive me for causing her so 
much anxiety. Tell her that I shall come to her as soon as I can 
get outside, and that I have been a good girl since I left her ; and 
then. Mademoiselle will know best how to tell it — " 

" Tell what, Clemence, — the American plan ? " 

" No, I would rather tell that myself ; but tell her, please," — and 
here Clemence fidgeted and blushed till her cheeks would have 
matched Madame's patriotic cap-ribbons, — " that I am very happy, 
and shall have some good news to tell her when I come." 

Alice looked at the girl in surprise. " You act, Clemence," she 
said, " like a girl with her first proposal." 

Clemence laughed, and looked up shyly. " Mademoiselle is very 
clever," she said ; " that is just what it is." 

" Some soldier, I suppose." 

Clemence nodded energetically 

" Then what becomes of this fine plan of going to America 1 " 

" Oh, I shall go, — I shall go all the same. He is going 
too." 

" Dear me ! " exclaimed Alice ; " we shall soon have to charter a 



SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. I 27 

steamer for our emigrants. Would n't it be better for your lover to 
go first, and make a home for you before you follow him ? " 

" Oh, no, Mademoiselle," Clemence replied, smoothing her apron 
with great importance. " I have more experience of the world than 
he, — more experience in making my own living, I mean." 

" Then you must be a couple of babes in the woods," Alice 
thought to herself, not unkindly. She felt a strong affection for 
Clemence, and she hoped to win her confidence, and be able to help 
the friendless girl in what she felt must be a perilous position; but 
she did not volunteer any advice or patronage, or ask any indiscreet 
questions. She simply drew the girl to her, with an arm about her 
, waist, and said kindly, " I am so glad for you, Clemence. A good 
man's love is one of the very best gifts which God can make us." 

" And he is good ! " Clemence replied, rolling up her eyes in 
rapture. 

Alice took the letter to Mr. Osborne, and he promised that it 
should be sent by the next pigeon. In spite of the light way in 
which he had treated the communications of Alphonse, Mr. Osborne 
was worried. It was a long time since he had received a despatch 
from Sallie, and he could not tell whether she received his. More 
than this, he had missed one or two of his Ferriere pigeons. In 
some unaccountable way they had disappeared. At first he thought 
it possible that Chiffon or Gourmet had entered the dove-cot by the 
way of the roofs ; but he had lately come to the conclusion that they 
could only have been taken by some human thief. His razor had 
been returned, but he was sure that his letters had been tampered 
with, and little by little he began to regard Miss Miller with suspicion. 
The court of the Maison Duval communicated by a little postern gate 
with a small cemetery, which was surrounded by a high wall, and was 
also entered through a church. There was a tradition that the gate 
leading to it had been made for the convenience of the sexton, who 
had at one time lodged at Maison Duval. It was a lonely spot, 



128 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

unused at present, and shaded by melancholy yews. James Osborne's 
only window commanded a view of its tombs and weedy walks ; and 
although it was not a cheerful prospect, he frequently looked out 
upon it. One night he was surprised to see some one with a small 
lantern moving in the cemetery. The light twinkled out from an 
angle of the church, crossed the graveyard, was hidden for an instant, 
then the little postern gate opened, and a dark figure entered the 
court, extinguished the lantern, and disappeared inside the house. 
Was it the ghost of the old sexton ? Madame Duval had said 
that the gate had not been used since his time. James Osborne 
was not superstitious, and when, shortly after. Miss Miller passed 
upstairs to the studio, it suddenly struck him that she must be the 
wanderer among the tombs. It was a singular fancy for a young 
lady, he thought, and one worth investigating. He noted the hour, 
and the next evening, a little in advance of it, he strolled carelessly 
by the church. Turning to retrace his steps, he saw a man wrapped 
in a large cloak disappear within the door. He followed, and saw 
the man open a side door and step into the cemetery. Mr. Osborne 
did not like to intrude further, and he returned as quickly as possible 
to his own room. It was a clear, moonlight night, and he could see 
two figures in the churchyard, — the man in the long cloak, and a 
woman. He waited ; the man presently retired through the church, 
and the woman entered the court of the Maison Duval, as she had 
done the preceding evening. Mr. Osborne was certain now that 
Miss Miller was in communication with some unknown person who 
was presumably a spy. He talked over the affair with a friend, a 
sergeant of Mobiles, who lived in the next house, and who considered 
it grave enough to investigate ; but the next evening there was no 
one there. Several days passed, and one afternoon while it was 
yet light Mr. Osborne, saw that the postern gate was open. He 
hurried to his friend's rooms, who summoned a couple of soldiers 
and proceeded with James Osborne through the rear of his own 



SUSP IC 10 us CIRCUMSTANCES. 



129 




liouse to the back of the cemetery. 
Here one of the men mounted on 
the back of the other and peered 
cautiously over the wall. He seemed 
much interested by what he saw, 
but asserted that it looked to him 
more like a flirtation than a po- 
litical plot, and the couple were 
chatting in an absorbed manner as 
they paced up and down. 

" We will go to the church door," 
said the sergeant, " and do you 
enter the cemetery by the little 
gate; we will then have an oppor- 
tunity to seize the 
man, and you can 
take charge of the 
woman." 
As the 



geant 



AN INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 
9 



ser- 
and his 
men approached 
the church, the 
man who had 
been seen inside 
" the cemetery 
passed them ; but 
no attempt was 
made to arrest 
him, for the ser- 
geant recognized 
his friend, Jules 
de Beaumont, 
whose patriotism 
was too well 



130 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

known to be for an instant doubted. The sergeant led his men 
back by a roundabout way, and waited for James Osborne, much 
chagrined at finding the alarm a false one. Mr. Osborne too, who 
had waited at the gate, and had seized the fair hand which soon 
opened it, was as surprised as its owner to find himself face to face, 
not with Miss Miller, but with little Clemence. 



CHAPTER VIII. 




THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 

'v^^ W'E pressure of the siege was felt more and more 
■^^"^ as the days went by. The meat ration issued 
to each person was cut down to one eighth of a 
pound for two days ; but in the restaurants and 
at the Maison Duval meat was still served as 
usual. The Americans knew that what figured 
on the menu as beef was really horse ; but they 
were quite willing to accept the cleanly grami- 
nivorous animal rather than fly to the unknown 
menagerie of the fancy dishes. A favorite dish of the Comte de 
Beaumont was rabbit (kitten) smothered in onions ; but there was 
another delicacy which even the most hardened gastronome looked at 
askance. This was "salmi of game," — the game that frisked fat and 
impudent in the sewers of Paris. Even Miss Miller, who seemed 
very curious and eager to try the different famine dishes, and was 
not at all squeamish, — for a girl, — turned pale and pushed back 
her plate when informed that the " salmi " was minced rat. 

Mrs. Davenport heard of many cases of real necessity, and spent 
much time and money in relieving them. Melicent would drive to 
very respectable quarters with a rough bag of potatoes under her feet 
in the dainty coupe, — a very acceptable gift from her mother to some 
compatriot of refined tastes ; while a cabbage wrapped in tissue 
paper was as acceptable as a bouquet, and the old Englishman's re- 



1^2 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



mark, " Of all the flowers of the garden give me the cauliflower," had 
never a truer showing. 

Minister Washburne did more in these days for the relief of for- 
eigners of every nationality shut up in the city than the world will 
ever give him credit for. 

It was Mrs. Davenport's desire to give a Thanksgiving dinner, as 
American in character as possible, to about twenty of her American 

friends. Madame would 



see that it was cooked, 
and served in a private 
apartment, but the girls 
were deputed to do the 
marketing. They started 
out in high spirits, Mel- 
icent suggesting that 
they should first visit 
a boucherie canine et 
feline (shop for cat 
and dog meat) just 
out of curiosity. One 




shuddering glance was 
enough, though the mar- 
ket-women protested 
that they were patron- 
ized by the aristocracy, 
and that cat had risen, 
a large one costing now 
twenty francs (four dollars). Dogs were cheaper ; and Melicent was 
so much touched by the piteous aspect of a Russian Skye who was 
offered for sale alive, and seemed to understand for what fate he was 
reserved, that she incontinently purchased him. The market-woman 
tumbled him into the scales, remarking, " We weigh him hair and 



AT THE MARKETS. 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 



^TyZ 



all ; but if Mademoiselle will derange herself to wait one little moment 
we will kill, skin, and dress him for her, and have him ready for the 
oven, with herbs enough thrown in to make a sauce piquanteT 

A look of horror crossed Melicent's face. " Oh, did you think 1 
could eat him ? " she exclaimed ; and catching up her rescued and 




" DOGS WERE CHEAPER." 



adopted pet she ran to the carriage as though fearing that the woman 
would insist upon decapitating him before her eyes. The woman 
did follow, waving her hand and calling, so that Alphonse was fain 
to stop. , 



134 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

"It is the fine herbs," she gasped, out of breath, ''pour la sauce, 
vous comprenezT 

Melicent took the little green bouquet, as the easiest method of 
ridding herself of the woman. " I shall keep it," she said, " as a 
souvenir of the narrow escape you had from being roasted, my little 
fellow; and oh, Alice, what shall we call him? " 

" The woman said that the herbs were for la sauce ; why not call 
him Sauce ? He looks as if he could be saucy enough if he were 
not so frightened." 

" Well, that shall be his name ; but, Alice, you do not seem very 
enthusiastic about his rescue." 

" I am sorry for the poor doggy ; but I was thinking, Melicent, of 
the human beings who are suffering in this great city at this time. 
Mr. Osborne says that he met a woman on the Pont-Neuf last night 
who had gone there to throw herself over because she was absolutely 
starving. If you could only give some child the food and care which 
that little animal will have, it seems to me that your affection and 
money would be better placed." 

Melicent sat very quiet and thoughtful for a few moments. " Do 
you think I ought to take Sauce back to the butcher's ? " she asked 
at last. 

" I did not say so, dear." 

" And you would n't do it, either. But I know what you mean ; I 
have been asking myself lately why we remained in Paris during the 
siege if it was not to do more good than we are doing. Oh, I am 
not so selfish and careless as you think, and I 've made up my mind 
that with Mother's permission I will join the Red Cross and nurse the 
soldiers ! " 

" That is a rather startling determination, my dear ; but if you do, 
I will too." 

" But, Alice, you have your art. Every day of your stay in Paris 
is of value to you as an art student." 




HOT-HOUSE, JARDIN DES PLANTES. 



THANKSGIVING DA Y AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 



137 



" If Henri Regnault could renounce art and march away as a 
common soldier at the call of his country, I fancy art will never miss 
me, and the key may rust in my studio door." 

" If Sallie were only here to lead us ! It is like going into battle 
without the trumpeter. Everything gives way before Sallie's will ; 
and we haven't won Mamma over yet, and meantime — " 

" And meantime we have n't purchased the Thanksgiving dinner." 
" To be sure; and the first thing is the turkey." 
Once more they visited the markets, but could find no bird which 

satisfied Melicent. Al- 
phonse advised them to 
drive to the Jardin des 
Plantes. "All of the 
animals in the Menagerie 
are to be delivered over 
to the markets in a few 
days, and perhaps through 
the influence of M. le 
Comte de Beaumont you 
might engage some curi- 
osity beforehand." 
Melicent was familiar with the 
conservatories at the Jardin des 
Plantes, for she had often walked in the 
Palm House and had studied its rare forms; 
but she had always felt a repugnance to the 
Menagerie, with its unpleasant odors and 
uncouth forms, such as most people would 
indulge only toward the Snake House. 
Alice, on the contrary, had sketched in 
fi'ont of the cages ; she knew M. Barye, the lecturer on comparative 
anatomy here, and the sculptor of the magnificent groups of animals 




" IN FRONT OF THE CAGES. 



138 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

in action, fighting and hunting Hons, which are so well known through 
their reproduction as mantel bronzes. 

She led the way now to the cage of a cross, mangy-looking 
old lion. " I believe this is the very brute," she said, " that Henri 
Regnault tried to draw when a little boy, and finding that the bars 
of the cage interfered with his view, he begged to be admitted, and 
finished his sketch inside." 

" He looks tough," Melicent remarked. " I don't believe we will 
have him on the Thanksgiving menu." 

Alice laughed. " Somebody told me," she continued, " an incident 
which occurred during a call upon Landseer, which would seem to 
imply that lion is a favorite London dish. The great animal-painter 
had ordered a lion, which had just died at the Zoological Gardens, to 
be sent to his studio to serve as a model for one of his magnificent 
studies. While the strangers were calling, the maid tapped at the 
studio door, and remarked all in one breath, ' If you please. Sir, the 
men have brought the lion on a cart, and Mrs. Landseer would like 
to know whether you will have a roast or boiled dinner.' " 

The girls passed slowly down the aisle studying the faces of the 
animals. " What was the old Levitical law } " Melicent asked, 
meditatively. 

" ' Whatsoever parteth the hoof and cheweth the cud, tliat shall ye 
eat,' " replied Alice; " ' and whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all 
manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you.' " 

" Then bear-steaks would be out of the question ; and yet I have 
heard that they are very nice. But, Alice dear, just look at that cage 
of monkeys ; surely no one will ever eat them." 

" And yet in South America they are a favorite dish. I have 
heard that they have nearly the same flavor as squirrel." 

" Let us go into the Aviary ; after all, what we want is a substitute 
for turkey." 

As they left the house they met the Comte de Beaumont, who was 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 



139 



taking his constitutional in the Gardens. He had some office in con- 
nection with the management, and it was a favorite spot of his. He 
was looking very much depressed when the girls first caught sight 
of him ; but he brightened up immediatel3^ and began chatting with 
his accustomed gallantry. As he and Jules were the only French- 
men invited to the Thanksgiving dinner, Melicent felt that she might 
tell him of her needs. 

"I comprehend," he exclaimed; "it is your fele nationale, and 
the eagle is your national bird ; it is 
your custom to consume an eagle at 
these patriotic entertainments." 

" Oh, no, Monsieur le Comte ! not 
an eagle, — a turkey, a common barn- 
yard turkey." 

" Ees it posseeble ? How one may 
misconceive ! Ze turkey is zen your 
bird national } I had always thought 
it to be ze eaHe." 

"So it is. Monsieur; the eagle is 
our emblem, but we eat the turkey." 

The Count shook his head in mild mystification ; but suddenly he 
exclaimed, " Imbecile that I am ! we have, by good fortune, in the 
next house an American turkey of quite a different species from our 
own, which is precisely your affair, — one of the celebrated turkeys 
of South Carolina." 

" I did not know," Melicent remarked, " that they had better 
turkeys in South Carolina than in any of the other States." 

" Perhaps it is a wild turkey," Alice suggested. But both girls 
stood amazed before the vulture-like creature which was presently 
shown them. Strange to say, Melicent recovered herself first. " That," 
she exclaimed, " is a turkey buzzard ; they are permitted to exist in 
the South as scavengers, but we never eat them." 




M. DE BEAUMONT. 



140, THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

Monsieur le Comte expressed himself as " desolated " at having 
so signally failed in pleasing the young ladies. " Does Mademoiselle 
see anything else which she would like ? " he asked. 

" How would a roast peacock answer, after the Roman fashion } " 
Alice asked. " We have certainly a wide enough choice. Here are 
all the banned birds of that same old Levitical category, — ' The eagle, 
and the ossifrage, and the osprey, and the vulture, and the kite, after his 
kind, every raven after his kind, and the owl, and the night-hawk, and 
the cuckoo, and the hawk after his kind, and the little owl, and the 
cormorant, and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican, and the 
gier-eagle, and the stork, the heron, and the lapwing, and the bat — '" 

" That will do, Alice," Melicent interrupted gently. " Monsieur 
le Comte, I think if you can obtain it for us, we would like a swan. 
I am sure that graceful, snowy bird could offend the prejudices of 
no stomach however squeamish." 

The polite gentleman expressed himself delighted to be allowed 
to serve Melicent. " I will move heaven and earth to obtain it," he 
exclaimed; "if necessary, I will even," — rolling his eyes imj^res- 
sively, — "I will even petition the Government." 

" Almost enough to make one turn vegetarian ! " said Melicent, as 
they drove away. " When one considers all the disgusting creatures 
which one could not be induced to eat, and such dear ones as this 
lovely Sauce, who is altogether too human for such cannibalism, there 
is very little left upon which to indulge our carnivorous appetites." 

They drove next to a small depot of American canned goods, and 
were able to obtain a jar of cranberry sauce and several cans of Boston 
baked beans. They could find no pumpkin nor any substitute for it 
with which to make pies, but they secured a few apples ; and Alice 
promised that if Madame Duval would let her use the kitchen, she 
would turn out a genuine Yankee mince-pie. With this meagre 
provisioning they returned to the Maison Duval. M. le Comte sat 
in the restaurant, a orlass of emi sucre untouched on the little table 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 141 

at his side, while he meditatively sucked the handle of his cane. He 
rose as the girls passed, and bowed profoundly. 

" I hope he will not put himself to too much trouble about that 
swan," Melicent remarked, as she entered her own room ; " a French- 
man is so profuse in his offers that one never knows when he is in 
earnest, but I really think I can trust M. de Beaumont." 

It so happened that Mrs. Davenport heard only the concluding- 
part of the sentence, and gave an entirely false meaning to it. Jules 
de Beaumont had proposed to Melicent ! — that was not so aston- 
ishing; but Melicent was kindly disposed to Jules de Beaumont, — 
that was indeed a shock. She would rather, too, that Melicent had 
confided in her before discussing the matter even with so intimate a 
friend as Alice. On the whole, she was much disturbed, but betrayed 
nothing of her agitation. She walked quietly to her dressing-table and 
carefully arranged her pointe duchesse cap with the little pink bows 
on her pretty silver-gray curls, and listened to the merry report of the 
marketing experiences. She even approved of the adoption of Sauce, 
and the little dog licked the lady's slender fingers with evident grati- 
tude ; it was a peculiarity of this little fellow that he always under- 
stood when people were talking about him, and often what was said. 
Owing to Mrs. Davenport's confusion of mind, she understood that it 
was Jules de Beaumont whom they had met at the Jardin des Plantes ; 
and she was asking herself in a dazed way where Alice could have 
been when the proposal was made, when Melicent, gliding from the 
subject of the dog to that of offering herself as a hospital nurse, 
which his adoption had suggested, knelt by her mother's chair, and 
winding her arms about her, said, — 

" I have something very important to ask of you. Mamma, — some- 
thing which I am afraid you will not approve, and you may be sure 
I will not take the step without your consent ; but indeed my heart 
is quite set upon it." 

Certain that her daughter was speaking of her future marriage with 



142 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



Jules de Beaumont, Mrs. Davenport was quite overcome. The tears 
came to her gentle eyes. " My dear child," she exclaimed, " I can guess 
what you mean ; say no more. No, I do not approve. I do not like the 
French character, and I do not like soldiers. I beg that you will take 
time to consider this decision, for, after all, you must yourself decide." 

Melicent kissed away her mother's tears, and the misapprehen- 
sion was 
not ex- 
plained 
until 
long 
after. 

Mean- 
time pre- 
parations went merrily on 
for the Thanksgiving dinner. 
A letter had been received from Sallie which glad- 
dened all hearts excepting that of James Osborne. 
The letter was read aloud in Mrs. Davenport's 
pleasant parlor, and Mr. Osborne and Miss Miller 
were privileged to hear the reading. 

" Say to Mr. Osborne," Sallie had written, 
"that I cannot help him as a spy. I am in a 
position where I could easily collect information, 
but I am convinced that it would be dishonorable 
for me to do so. I did not think so at first; I 
wrote him a letter from Ferrieres, but I did not 
send it." 

Captain MUller considered. Yes, that was true, 
letter in the ulster pocket ; it had not been sent. 
she sympathized with the German cause. Mrs. Davenport read on : 

" ' I have had opportunity also to furnish information to the Prus 




ACCOUTREMENTS. 

He had found the 
Perhaps, after all, 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 1 43 

sians ; but I need not say that I have equally scorned being an in- 
former in that direction. If I were a man I would fight for the 
French ; but being a woman, I will not tattle for any one." 

So Sallie was French in feeling. Strange to say, this did not 
lower her in Captain Miiller's esteem. Evidently she had destroyed 
the despatches which he had intrusted to her care. No matter ; he 
loved her all the same. Yes, the fact had dawned at length on his 
slow-moving Teutonic mind, — he really loved this exasperating 
American girl, and his heart was beating to the tune of — 

" Wenn i' komm', wenn i' koinm', wenn i' wiedrum komtn'." 

He hardly heard James Osborne say, " Some one has been sending 
Sallie information for the German headquarters ; who can it be } " 

The young man looked keenly at Miss Miller, who looked up from 
the crochet-work which Melicent was teaching her with such an evi- 

o 

dently uncomprehending look in her frank blue eyes, that even James 
Osborne could not believe her guilty; and yet he mistrusted the girl, 
and hated to see Melicent so kind to her. It filled him with an un- 
reasoning jealousy, of which he was ashamed in his better moments, 
for he knew that he had received no right to be jealous of Melicent. 

Thanksgiving Day, the 26th of November, came at last ; but any 
one not so absorbed as our Americans were in preparation for their 
dinner would have felt a certain tremor in the air, a suppressed ex- 
citement, a tension of nerves, which told that something of importance 
was going on. Jules de Beaumont presented himself on the 25th, 
followed by a porter bearing the swan, — a noble bird, — but he made 
only a very brief call, and seemed distrait, answering at random all 
their questions, and hurrying away to polish his cuirass until it out- 
shone his mirror. There was a great furbishing and polishing of 
accoutrements going on all over the city. The gunsmith's wife was 
sure, from the amount of emery-paper and scouring pomade which 
they had sold, that there was to be a grand review somewhere. Miss 
Miller, more keen to observe the signs of the times, was certain that a 



144 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



sortie was planned. If she could only find out in what direction, 
she would quietly return with this news to the German army, for 
life under James Osborne's scrutiny was becoming uncomfortable. A 
regiment of horse had left the city early in the week, and returned 
again the next day, — that was a reconnoissance. But where had they 
been, and what had they decided upon ? All was provokingly mys- 
terious. The family attended service in the American chapel on the 







"i^^'i'^: '■ 



HUSSARS -RECONNOITRING. 



morning of Thanksgiving Day. There were many Americans left 
in Paris, and it was an encouraging and beautiful thing thus to 
honor their country and their country's God together. Melicent 
noticed several compatriots who were connected with the American 
Ambulance, as their hospital was called. One of them, a resolute 
young surgeon, spoke to her as they left the church, and invited her 
to visit the new hospital tents before they were filled by the wounded 
from the next battle. 

" I would rather come after they are full," Melicent replied 
earnestly. 

" They will not look so pretty then," said the surgeon ; " but if you 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 



145 



really mean work you will be very welcome. We shall have enough 
of it soon." 

The first guest to arrive that afternoon was the Comte de Beau- 
mont, in almost total eclipse behind an enormous bouquet which 
he presented to Mrs. Davenport. It was too heavy for her to hold, 
and the girls tripped away to arrange it as the centre-piece for the 
table, supported by Mrs. Davenport's pair of branching silver can- 
delabra; with the wax-lights gleaming under pretty colored shades, 
the table had a very festive effect. Alice had decorated a dinner-card 
for each guest ; and the girls remained so long giving dainty touches 
to the table, that the Comte de Beaumont found the opportunity^ 
which he had so long desired, of speaking to Mrs. Davenport in 
regard to the marriage of their children. He made the proposal in 
due French form, regretting that his wife was not by his side to ratify 
it, but assuring Mrs. Davenport that his latest advices from her were 
of such a nature as to authorize him in the step he was taking. 

Mrs. Davenport thanked the Count for the great honor done 
her daughter, but added, — 

" In America we give our children great liberty of choice in these 
matters, attempting only to counsel them wisely. Are you quite 
certain that Monsieur Jules really loves my daughter.'^ He certainly 
has not the appearance of a very ardent lover." 

The Count frowned slightly. " It is true, Madame, it is not Jules' 
nature to be impassioned, enthusiastic. At one time I feared that he 
would never marry; but he has changed. He confided to me recently 
that he loved and was beloved, and he asked my permission to marry 
and go to America as soon as the unhappy condition of our country 
would permit him to retire from it. 'She whom I have chosen,' he 
said, 'has no rank; but what of that? My own is nothing since the 
fall of the Empire ; ' and he begged me to intercede with his mother 
in his behalf. So, my dear Madame, I can give you, I am sure, 
convincing proof that our Jules is a genuine lover." 



146 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

" Then," replied Mrs. Davenport, faintly, " it rests entirely with 
Melicent." 

Other guests were announced, among them the surgeon with 
whom Melicent had spoken that morning. She begged him to tell 
her mother about the new hospital tents, and Miss Miller hovered 
near, asking how soon they expected to use them. The parlors filled, 
and the chatting increased to chattering. M. le Comte walked about, 
beaming on everybody, radiantly happy, and expressing his delight at 
meeting so many Americans, and his opinion that America was, next 
to France, the greatest country on the face of the earth. He caught 
a glimpse of Clemence in her new cap trimmed with cherry ribbons, 
and for the first time recognized her as having been at one time a 
member of his own household. 

" And so you are maid to Mademoiselle Melicent," he exclaimed, 
taking her hand. " Ah, well ! be a good girl, and we may yet have 
you back again in the De Beaumont family." 

Clemence looked up with a quick blush. " Was it possible that 
M. le Comte had given his consent .f*" But no; he slipped a franc 
into her hand, and darted away to speak to his son, who had just 
entered. 

It was time to serve dinner, but the war correspondent had not 
arrived ; and as it had been arranged that he should take Melicent 
out, they waited for him. 

" He told me he was going to call on General Trochu to obtain 
items for his newspaper letters," said Mrs. Davenport to Miss Miller, 
"but would certainly be here in time. Something very important 
must have detained him, and I will ask Jules de Beaumont to take his 
place." 

The dinner was a great success. The surgeon carved the swan, 
which was a triumph of culinary art, decorated with red and white 
roses carved in beet and turnip. The cranberry sauce and the baked 
beans were eaten with national enthusiasm. The French entrees 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 149 

duly appreciated, the ices were sipped, bonbons nibbled, and Alice's 
mince-pie received a standing toast. Then, after the nuts and raisins, 
coffee was served in Mrs. Davenport's Dresden cups, and the party 
gathered in the parlors for music. The Count gave Jules a meaning- 
look, repeating the words, " Now is your time," and the young man 
turned pale. He had eaten nothing, and had been very silent at 
table, for in that brief whispered conference with his son as he 
entered the Count had told him that Mrs. Davenport had consented 
to the marriage, and that Melicent was now his affianced ; the insig- 
nificant detail of presenting the ring alone remaining. Jules compre- 
hended that a terrible mistake had been made. Why had he not 
been brave enough to tell his father that Clemence was the lady of his 
heart } There was no time for such an explanation now, or rather it 
must be made to Melicent instead of to his father. Feelino- that he 
would rather have faced a mitrailleuse, he walked desperately up to 
Melicent, and asked for a few moments' conversation with her in the 
conservatory. 

" I have received an order to report at the Bois de Vincennes to- 
night. There will be fighting, and I may not return. I have some- 
thing very important to tell you." 

Miss Miller overheard this request. " Vincennes," the spy re- 
peated to himself ; " the sortie is in the direction of Vincennes ; but I 
must hear more," and Captain Miiller hastened in advance of the 
young couple to the conservatory. It was hardly more than a bay- 
window opening both into the parlor and the dining-room, and it was 
behind the dining-room door that the spy ensconced himself. 

Melicent's previous experience had taught her to recognize the 
symptoms of an approaching proposal, and she was not to blame 
for imagining that she perceived them here. Genuinely sorry, for 
she liked Jules in a friendly way, and was not enough of a coquette 
to delight in giving pain, she racked her brain for some way out 
of the dilemma, and a sudden happy thought struck her. She 



150 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

would take the initiative, and by confiding in Jules save him from 
the mortification of a refusal. It was the easier to do this, as the 
young man was in no hurry to begin his confession. 

" I am glad to have this opportunity, M. de Beaumont," she said 
kindly, as they seated themselves among the flower-pots, " for I have 
always regarded you as a very kind friend, and I want to tell you 
of a decision which I have recently formed." Jules listened politely, 
glad to put off the evil day of his own speaking. " I have determined 
to devote my life to philanthropy. I am going to be a hospital 
nurse." 

" Mademoiselle is an angel of mercy to our poor French soldiers," 
murmured Jules. 

" But it is not all for France," Melicent persisted. " I said I had 
determined to give my life to it, and I hope to have a very long life, 
and that France will soon be at peace, and all the French soldiers 
beyond the need of nursing. I know that I shall like the work ; I 
feel an enthusiasm for it which I never felt for anything else in my 
life. I am going into it heart and soul, with no room for any other 
enthusiasm. I shall never marry ; but when my work is done here, I 
shall find somethinsf of the same kind to do somewhere else." 

The young man's entire attitude changed. He lifted himself from 
his drooping posture, and looked Melicent eagerly in the face. 

"Mademoiselle has said that she will never marry; but that is 
absurd, — impossible ! " 

" It is a resolution which I have firmly determined upon," Melicent 
replied, with the absolutism of nineteen. 

" Mademoiselle will think differently some day," said Jules. " Some 
happy man will be able to waken that regard which — " 

" Now, please do not talk nonsense," Melicent interrupted ; " at 
any rate, I am now perfectly certain that such a thing can never be." 

Melicent was greatly astonished to see a look of unutterable 
relief sweep over Jules de Beaumont's face ; it was unmistakable. 







THE DONJON OF VINCENNES. 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MAISON DUVAL. 



153 



" Mademoiselle, then, refuses absolutely the proposition which my father 
has had the presumption to make in my favor." 

" I knew of no such proposal," Melicent replied ; " and from your 
expression I cannot imagine that it was your desire." 

" It was a dream of our parents," replied Jules, " and I cannot ex- 
press to you, my friend, the gratitude which I feel to you for releasing 
me from a false position. You 
call this le Joiir de Reconnais- 
sance, You have made it such 
indeed to two unfortunate lovers." 
Jules went on to explain his affec- 
tion for Clemence, and the opposi- 
tion of his family, and ended by 
begging Melicent to take his part 
with his father. This the aston- 
ished girl readily agreed to do. It 
was not a little shock to find her 
rejected lover so easily consoled ; 
but she was almost as much re- 
lieved as he, by the unexpected 
denouement. 

" And now," exclaimed the 
happy young man, looking at his 
watch, " I have just fifteen min- 
utes in which to bid Clemence 
farewell, for General Ducrot has 
ordered us to rendezvous at Vin- 
cennes at nine o'clock. Do you 
hear that distant trumpet-call .? That is for the Mobiles. My 
horse will be saddled and at my door in twenty minutes. Wish 
me success. Mademoiselle, for we may next meet under the Red 
Cross." 




EN AVANT. 



154 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

He had hardly gone to the accustomed trysting-place in the little 
churchyard, the Count squeezing his hand, and saying in a trembling 
voice, as he left the room, " Fais ion devoir advienne que pourra,'' 
when James Osborne entered and asked for Melicent. She was still 
sitting in the conservatory trying to collect her scattered senses, and 
to determine how best to break the ice with the Count, when the 
war correspondent found her. 

" I have some rather startling news. Miss Davenport," he began, 
hurriedly. 

"Yes?" Melicent replied, in a hesitating manner, putting her 
hand to her head, and wondering what was coming next. 

" I come to you with it because I think you have the clearest 
head of any of us, and will be best able to grasp the situation and 
suggest an expedient." 

" Oh, please don't depend upon me! I feel like a baby; my judg- 
ment is worth nothing ! " the girl replied impulsively. 

Mr. Osborne looked surprised and disappointed. " As you like," 
he said ; " perhaps I had better take it to your mother." 

Melicent collected herself with a strong effort. " No, don't annoy 
Mamma, if it is anything that I can do ; at least, let me know it first. 
Is it trouble ? Have you heard again from Sallie } " 

" It does not relate to Miss Benton, and the trouble is only this : 
The Miss Miller who has been staying with us for a month past is a 
Prussian spy." 

Melicent uttered an exclamation of surprise, or both would have 
heard the involuntary movement made by the listener behind the 
dining-room door. 

" She seems such a nice girl," Melicent said persuasively ; " I am 
sure you are mistaken." 

" She is not a girl at all. Alphonse and I have watched narrowly, 
and have now proof positive. Our guest is an officer in the German 
army." 



THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MA ISO N DUVAL. I 55 

" But need we give him up ? " Melicent plead earnestly. "Can we 
not insist on his leaving the city ? " 

" That is no longer possible ; the gates are closed to all but the 
military, and it is impossible for us to harbor him longer, if we would ; 
the authorities are on his track. What was that noise ? Was any 
one in the dining-room ? " 

" Clemence may have been putting the china in place." 

James Osborne threw open the door, but the room was empty. 
" Where is Miss Miller ? " he asked. 

" She was at dinner, and promised to play something from Wagner 
afterward. You must let me warn her, Mr. Osborne ; I cannot leave 
a human being in such deadly peril without doing my utmost in her 
behalf." 

They passed through the rooms together, but Miss Miller was not 
to be found. They hurried up to the studio, but it was unoccupied. 
Some papers recently ignited were smouldering in the fireplace. 
James Osborne poured water upon them, but it was too late, — they 
were illegible. " Who could have warned him? " he asked; for it was 
evident that the spy had fled. 



CHAPTER IX. 




THE RED CROSS AND THE SORTIE. 



^HEN Melicent returned to the drawing-room 
she found that the conversation had fallen 
on the organization of the Red Cross. 

" I know that it takes its name from its 
flag and arm badge," Alice was saying, — "a 
red cross on a white ground ; just the reverse 
of the national flag of Switzerland, which 
displays a white cross on a red field. But I 
would like to know more about the Association." 

" The Red Cross Society was formed several years since," replied 
the American surgeon. " It was composed of members of different 
nationalities, and without any foreknowledge of this particular war. 
It arranged by an international treaty, signed by nearly all civilized 
nations except the United States, 'for the exemption from capture 
and protection of those taking care of the wounded on battlefields, 
and also of such inhabitants of invaded territories as gave them shelter 
and assistance. It undertook to care for wounded men when they fell, 
no matter to which of the belligerent armies they belonged,' and its 
plans were so fully matured that it was able to take the field on the 
declaration of the present hostilities." 

" You say," said Mrs. Davenport, " that America took no part 
in this treaty ; but Clara Barton, who is doing such a noble work in 
Strasburg, is a Massachusetts woman." 




THE RED CROSS. 



THE RED CROSS AND THE SORTIE. 1 59 

" Many individual Americans are members of the League," replied 
the surgeon. " It is strange, but there is no people quicker to 
respond to the call of humanity than the American, take them as 
individuals, and no civilized government harder to move in the same 
direction than our own." 

They continued to speak of Clara Barton, of her noble work for 
our own soldiers during the War of the Rebellion, and James Osborne 
remarked that he had heard that the Grand Duchess Louise of Baden, 
the only daughter of the Emperor, was deeply interested in the Red 
Cross Society, and had invited Miss Barton to visit her at Carlsruhe 
until the close of the siege of Strasburg, in order to be instructed in 
Miss Barton's ideas of managing a Sanitary Commission. 

Miss Barton afterward wrote of the duchess : ^ — 

" Her many and beautiful castles were transformed into hospitals, and her 
entire court formed a committee of relief. I have seen a wounded Arab from the 
French armies stretch out his arms to her in blessing as she passed his bed." 

The Empress and Emperor conferred on Miss Barton the Iron 
Cross, which is only bestowed upon those who have earned it by 
heroism on the battlefield. At the capitulation of Strasburg, Miss 
Barton entered the city and carried on the work of relief here and in 
the other cities which suffered from siege. She did not reach Paris 
until the closing days of the Commune, when she labored most effi- 
ciently, distributing German and American bount}'' to the suffering. 

The contrast of the perfect organization and abundant supplies 
furnished by this Society, with the terrible lack of help in our own 
war, was very forcibly impressed upon Miss Barton's mind. She 
writes : — 

" I thought of the Peninsula in McClellan's campaign, of Petersburg Land- 
ing, Cedar Mountain, and second Bull Run, Antietam, old Fredericksburg with 
its acres of snow-covered and gun-covered glacis, and its fourth day flag of 

^ Compiled from " Our Famous Women." See Chapter on Clara Barton, by Lucy 
Larcom. 



i6o 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



truce, of its dead and starving wounded frozen to the ground, and our com- 
missions and their supphes in Washington, with no effective organization, or 
power to go beyond ; of the Petersburg mine, with its four thousand dead and 
wounded, and no flag of truce, the wounded broiling in a July sun, the dead 
bodies putrefying where they fell. As I saw the work of these Red Cross 
societies in the field, accomplishing in four months under their systematic 
organization what we failed to accomplish in four years without it, — no mis- 
takes, no needless suffering, no waste, no confusion, but order, plenty, cleanliness, 
and comfort wherever that little flag made its way, — I said to myself, I will try 
to make my people understand the Red Cross and that treaty." 



Bartons right liere and now 



The .surgeon ended his remarks with, " We need fifty Clara 

Our ambulances are ordered out for 
to-morrow, and will probably return 
well filled." 

" I have had some experience in 
nursing, Doctor," said Mrs. Daven- 
port, quietly, *' and if the girls will try 
to get along without me, I will report 
to you to-morrow." 

" But the girls will come too," 
Melicent exclaimed, with kindling 
eyes ; " that is just what Alice and 
I have wanted to ask you, but have 
not dared." 

Mrs. Davenport looked from one 
to the other in mild surprise. 

" It is no holiday amusement," said 
the surgeon. " I fear you are none of you strong enough for the work." 
" You have no idea how strong I am," Melicent replied. " I stood 
a season at Newport after one at Saratoga, and used to go swimming 
every morning, and riding in the afternoon, after dancing half the 
night ; and I made up three conditioned studies, too, with a private 
tutor, so that I could graduate with my class at Vassar." 




THE AMERICAN SURGEON. 



THE RED CROSS AND THE SORTIE. l6l 

" I cannot boast of any such feats as that," said Ahce, smiHng; 
*' but I have never had a sick day since I recovered from the measles 
ten years ago, and I am accustomed to paint standing seven hours 
daily. I think we can stand it." 

" We will engage, then, as night nurses," said Mrs. Davenport, 
" since it is possible for us to make up our sleep at home during the 
day, and will come on duty to-morrow evening. Please give us the 
same ward, that I may be able to assist these young apprentices with 
suggestions." 

Other of the guests present followed Mrs. Davenport's example, 
and volunteered their services, and the surgeon left with a smiling 
face. One by one the other guests departed, the Comte de Beaumont 
remaining till the last. Alice felt that a family council was about to 
take place, and discreetly stole away. 

The Count was complimenting Mrs. Davenport on the admirable 
spirit manifested by her daughter, as Melicent brought him his tiny 
glass of anisette. He rose and gallantly drank her health in it ; then, 
setting down the glass, he took her hand, and looked vainly at her 
shapely fingers for a ring. 

" Chere Mademoiselle," he asked, " is it not all settled } Are not 
the De Beaumonts to congratulate themselves } " 

" Dear M. de Beaumont," Melicent replied, " I can never express 
my gratitude to you for thinking that you would like to have me 
for a daughter ; but really you are quite mistaken. You do not un- 
derstand just what an American girl is, and it is much better that 
Jules should have a French wife. Besides, you see, Jules and I do 
not love each other." 

" Melicent, my dear child," Mrs. Davenport said, drawing her 
daughter to her, " is this resolution to become a hospital nurse all 
you had to say to me when you told me the other day of something 
very important which you had to confide ? " 

" Yes, Mamma, all that I had to tell you then, though it is but 



102 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



fair to say that Jules and I have had a little conversation this evening 
which I wish to report." 

" I do not understand," exclaimed the Count, much confused. 
" Have you rejected my son.f* Have you had the heart to make him 

miserable for life } " 




MELICENT RISES TO THE OCCASION. 



" He is not miserable, my dear friend, but, on the contrary, very 
happy ; for he loves a sweet, good girl who loves him very truly in 
return, and he has asked me to break this to you." 

*' The scoundrel ! and did he tell you this instead of proposing 
to you } " 

" No, Monsieur, he did his best to carry out your wishes ; but he 



THE RED CROSS AND THE SORTIE. 1 63 

looked so very grateful when I assured him that such a marriage was 
impossible, that I immediately guessed the truth." 

" So," said the old gentleman, musingly, " my rascal of a son loves 
some Frenchwoman, and will complicate the family position still 
more by allying himself with some new political party, instead of 
breaking away from it all, as his mother and I had planned, and 
becoming an American." 

*' But, M. de Beaumont, that may still be. The youno- o-irl 
who has won your son's affection is not connected with French 
politics in any way. She is a dear friend of mine, and is going to 
America with me, where she will become an American to all intents 
and purposes. Jules can follow her, marry her from our house, and 
settle wherever he likes in our great country. Will not that be 
enough like the plan you had made for him } " 

" Perhaps so, perhaps so," the old gentleman replied doubt- 
fully ; " but who is this young girl, whom I am to receive in your 
stead .? " 

" You know her, M. de Beaumont, or at least you think you do, 
but you do not begin to know her strength of character, — how 
she hid herself from Jules for fear that her love for him would break 
down her resolution never to consent to anything but a marriage 
with a cordial welcome from his parents. 

An angry light glared from the old man's eyes. " And you pro- 
pose for the De Beamnonts an alliance with peasants, with canaille ? " 

" Monsieur forgets that I have said that Clemence is my friend ; 
and we have no peasant class in America." 

The shock was too great ; with all Melicent's tact, M. de Beau- 
mont was deeply incensed, and he descended the staircase, puffing 
and snorting like a wounded buffalo. Melicent did not smile as 
she might have done at another time. She was very weary, and 
she simply put her arms around her mother's neck and laid her 
head upon her shoulder. 



1 64 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

Mrs. Davenport gently stroked her child's hair. " I am very 
glad," she said, " that you and Jules do not care for each other." 

" But I do care very much for Jules, Mamma, only it is a motherly 
sort of care. I would not have taken all this trouble for him if he 
had not seemed to me like an amiable, pathetic, helpless infant ; they 
are both babies, — father and son. Oh, Mother, if I ever marry, it 
must be some one with moral courage and backbone enough to fight 
his own battles. I had thought that Jules was gaining this lately; 
but when it came to the crucial test of presenting Clemence to his 
father, he showed himself a coward. I shall half distrust him all his 
life, now. Would he have accepted the situation if I had not helped 
him out } Suppose for an instant that I had cared for him ! I do 
believe he would have been false to Clemence ; and yet there is 
no question that he loves her. Who is it said, — 

' You love ! That 's high as you shall go ; 

For 't is as true as gospel text, 
Not noble then is never so, 

Either in this world or the next ' ? " 

" There, darling, you are excited ; but I am very glad that my 
child has learned that amiability, engaging manners, refinement, and 
fastidious tastes are not the corner-stones of character." 

It was late when mother and daughter slept. All night the 
cannon rumbled through the streets, and there was the steady tramp, 
tramp, of le regiment qui passe, with now and then a good voice 
singing, — 

" Vive la guerre, Piff-paff." 

To the southeast of Paris the Marne makes a loop before it joins 
the Seine. Just north of this spot lies the Bois de Vincennes and 
the village of Champigny. One hundred thousand Frenchmen and 
four hundred cannon were collected in the wood of Vincennes under 
General Ducrot, whose object was to throw bridges over the Marne 
and force his way out to make a juncture with the troops at Orleans. 







JEAN ROUSSEL WAS STATIONED AS A SCOUT." 



THE RED CROSS AND THE SORTIE. 1 67 

At the same time General Vinoy was to make a noisy demonstration 
toward the south in the direction of L'Hay and Choisy le Roi, while 
the forts and redoubts on the south were to keep up a cannonading 
toward Meudon, in the hope of attracting the Prussians in this 
direction, and blinding them to the sortie at Vincennes. Troops 
were also ostentatiously marched and countermarched about St. 
Denis, to draw the Germans on the east to the north of Paris. (See 
map on cover-Hnings.) It was an ingeniously-contrived plan, and 
an electric current ran through the army from General Trochu down 
to the simplest Franctireur, telling that a supreme effort was to be 
made for France. 

Jean Roussel was stationed as a scout on the extreme edge of the 
Bois, and the old sergeant who gave him the mot d^ordre had given 
him strict injunctions to let no one pass in either direction without it. 
This was a dangerous post, and Jean knew it, but he did not care, 
for he had seen Clemence, and he knew that there was no hope for 
him. It was he who had been selected to climb on his comrades' 
shoulders and look into the churchyard, and he had recognized both 
Clemence and Jules de Beaumont in that brief glance. It was an 
even choice to him now whether the Prussians killed him or not. 

While he kept guard, Clemence was bidding a tender farewell to 
Jules, who was not quite so weak as Melicent had fancied, but would 
have managed in some lame and blundering but honest fashion to 
explain his predicament to her, even if her quick woman's wit had 
not extricated him from his dilemma. 

While Jules was wasting the precious moments in the church- 
yard, Captain Miiller was taking advantage of his dalliance. Warned 
none too quickly of the peril of his situation, he comprehended both 
his danger and his means of escape in the sentence, " The gates are 
closed to all but the military." Jules de Beaumont's horse would be 
waiting for him in a few moments, and on the instant Captain Miiller 
resolved on his course of conduct. He flew to the studio, burned all 



1 68 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

compromising papers, then hastened to Jules' room in a neighboring 
house, and exchanged the feminine garb, which he had worn so long, 
for the cuirassier uniform. His blond hair had an incongruous look, 
and he quickl}^ plastered it and his eyebrows with patent blacking. 
Then, when the helmet with the long horse-tail was properly adjusted, 
he was startled by the resemblance to young De Beaumont which the 
cheval-glass showed him. He packed the feminine garments in a 
neat parcel which he addressed to Melicent ; then, descending the 
stairs, he took the horse's reins from the stable-boy, who never once 
suspected his identity, and galloped swiftly away toward Vincennes. 
He passed every sentinel without challenge, until he reached the end 
of the Bois ; but here he made a detour, for he had no desire to 
report at the general rendezvous, his object being to cross the Marne 
and to join a detachment of Saxons which he knew were stationed 
on the other side. The moonlight shone through the trees, and 
showed him a stupid-looking Mobile stationed near the bridge, the 
last of the French sentinels. The man ordered him to halt, but he 
flew by. It was Jean Roussel, and he brought his piece up in pur- 
suance of the order which the old sergeant had given him ; but as he 
did so, he thought he recognized the man who had just passed him, 
and he shouted: " Is it you, Monsieur Jules de Beaumont } " 

Captain MUller had gained the bridge, but thinking that an 
affirmative answer would insure his safety, he half turned in his saddle 
and cried, '' Om, mon enfant f'' Instantly Jean Roussel fired. It was 
his long-desired opportunity to kill his rival, and what an unhoped-for 
chance to do it in the performance of his own duty ! Captain Miiller 
reeled and fell forward on the neck of his horse, grasping its mane. 
The animal trotted on for some distance beyond the bridge before he 
fell, and then stood quietly beside him. Jean Roussel remained at 
his post. It would have been disobeying orders to cross the bridge; 
besides, there were sharp-shooters beyond the turn in the road. As 
,he kept guard, he watched the form of the man lying over there. 



THE RED CROSS AND THE SORTIE. 



169 



The horse wandered about uneasily, neighed softly, and snuffed about 
the body, but the man did not lift a hand. 

For an hour or more Jean Roussel watched his victim, and as he 
became convinced that he was dead, the rage died out of his heart, 
and he crossed himself in superstitious dread. Was he then a mur- 
derer ? If only he had been sure that Jules de Beaumont had meant 
honorably by Clemence, it would have 
been better if he — Jean Roussel — had 
clenched his own heart in his hands and 
had let him go. A horror of darkness 




came over him, and he 
was on the point of leav- 
ing his post and running 
to the assistance of the 
man whom he had shot, 
when the horse suddenly 
threw up its head, snuffed the air, and galloped swiftly back toward the 
French troops ; at the same instant Jean saw the dark forms of 
Saxon sharp-shooters stealing cautiously down the road. He dis- 
charged his piece again, and this time the report was heard by his 



•■■<3- 



THE ATTACK ON THE OUTPOST. 



170 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

friends, who hurried to the spot. At the same instant a dash was 
made in his direction by the Saxons, and so sharp a skirmish took 
place that the Mobiles were forced to fall back. Jean Roussel re- 
ported at headquarters that he had killed Jules de Beaumont while 
deserting to the enemy. The absence of Jules at roll-call and the 
return of his horse apparently corroborated this statement. 

Meantime Jules, who had inevitably remained longer in the 
churchyard, bidding adieu to Clemence, than he had intended, hur- 
ried to his room only to find his uniform gone, his horse missing, and 
a mysterious bundle on his table addressed to Miss Davenport. His 
first thought was that some comrade who imagined him devoted to 
Melicent had played him a rascally trick, and that this package might 
contain his uniform. He opened it only to be still more mystified, 
and hurried back to the Maison Duval with it, hoping to find an 
explanation of this strange affair. He met his father in the most 
evil hour possible. The old gentleman was just leaving the door 
after his interview with Melicent, and he refused to believe his son's 
statement. 

" You are a coward, sir," he exclaimed in fury, " and have taken 
this means to shirk your duty ! You have doubtless pawned your 
uniform, and sold your horse at the shambles ; but you shall not 
escape in this way ! I will drag you to your officers, and they shall 
drive you to the front at the point of the bayonet!" The infuriated 
Count bundled his son into a cab which was standing near by, and 
ordered the driver to hurry to the front. 

Alphonse, who had witnessed this scene, picked up the bundle 
addressed to Miss Davenport, and carried it to the salon ; but as the 
ladies had retired, he did not disturb them. On his way to his room 
he dropped in upon James Osborne, and related the altercation 
between the De Beaumonts. 

"And this bundle, Alphonse, — you have doubtless some idea of 
what it contains ? " 




TURCOS. 



THE RED CROSS AND THE SORTIE. 1 73 

Alphonse coughed, and admitted that the paper was broken at one 
corner and he could not help observing the dress which Miss Miller 
had worn that evening. 

"Then it is all very simple," exclaimed the war correspondent. 
"The spy has escaped in Jules' uniform; it may not be too late to 
trap him ;" and he hurried after the De Beaumonts. He overtook them 
at the city gate, where the sentinels had refused to let them pass, and 
where the Count had decided to remain until morning. 

On hearing Mr, Osborne's revelations the Count's anger cooled 
somewhat ; he considered the honor of his house so far as regarded 
valor vindicated, and was anxious to have it proved to the satisfaction 
of Jules' ofiicers and comrades. This proved, however, no easy matter. 
Jules was not able to report until his regiment was ordered within the 
gates ; and on presenting himself to his captain he was instantly ar- 
rested as a deserter from the field of battle, and marched off to a 
military prison, and the poor Count was plunged into the deepest 
distress. As so often happens, his son's misfortune completely 
changed the Count's feelings toward him. Jules was now the 
rnost perfect of beings, and his father was disposed to look with 
leniency even upon his affection for Clemence. The Count hung 
upon Mr. Osborne, who promised to do all in his power to clear Jules 
at the court-martial. 

Mrs. Davenport had tendered her sympathy to the Count on 
hearing of Jules' misfortune, but she could think of nothing which 
they could do to aid him. But Melicent, though much occupied by 
her new duties at the hospital, found time to prove true the assertion 
that she made to M. de Beaumont, that she was the friend of Clem- 
ence. The poor girl was distracted by Jules' danger; but Melicent 
comforted her so kindly with the assurance that all would certainly be 
well in the end, and took such a cheerful and sympathizing view of 
the little love-story, that Clemence, who had always stood in awe of 
her young mistress, regarded her as an angel sent from heaven. 



174 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



" And now," said Melicent, " that I know of the future which is 
before you, I want to help you fit yourself for it. You ought to 
have more of an education, Clemence, to be the wife of a man of 
Jules de Beaumont's social position." 

Clemence sighed, and acknowledged that this was true, but she 
had studied on the sly ; she was, perhaps, not so ignorant as Made- 
moiselle fancied. Melicent at once instituted an examination, and 
found that Clemence could not only read, but had made much of 
every opportunity to do so, and had crammed herself with a great 
variety of miscellaneous literature including several heavy histories. 
She could cipher very accurately, and had kept the accounts for the 
housekeeper when at the De Beaumont villa so far as adding the 
figures went, for, strange to say, she could not write. Melicent 
planned a course of study for her, and spent two hours every after- 
noon in hearing her lessons. She was very apt in picking up English, 
and read aloud to Melicent from Shakspeare and Walter Scott. 

Melicent found this new life of double work more difficult than she 
had anticipated. The ambulances came rolling in from Vincennes and 

the south for the next three days with the 
wounded, though no one seemed able to 
tell whether or not the sortie had been suc- 
cessful. The American tents were soon 
filled, and they heard the young surgeon 
say that it was estimated that six hundred 
Frenchmen had been killed and over four 
thousand wounded in the recent attempt to 
break through the German line. Melicent 
had as one of her charges a drummer-boy 
who had been wounded in the arm at Cham- 
pigny, and who was very anxious lest he should never be able again 
to shake his drumsticks. " And to think," he said, " I was doing 
the Prussians no harm whatever when that vilain ball struck me. 




A PRUSSIAN PIPE. 




Alice's model. 



THE RED CROSS AND THE SORTIE. 1 77 

The troops were resting, and I had picked up a Prussian pipe and was 
thinking that there was a fine souvenir of the day, when, ping ! they 
gave me another, which so distracted my attention that I dropped the 
pipe, and I 've no doubt that some one else picked it up. It was a 
fine pipe, with a porcelain bowl painted with roses. I was foolish to 
drop it ; but, you see, the shot surprised me." 

" I know of a shop on the boulevard," said Melicent, where they 
sell souvenirs supposed to have been found on battlefields, and I will 
try to find you a pipe, if you wish." 

The boy's eyes brightened, and Melicent made a long circuit that 
day to fulfil her promise, though she was very weary. She found one 
which exactly answered the boy's description, and was repaid for her 
trouble by hearing him declare that it was the very one which he had 
found and lost. The boy grew delirious after this, but was often 
soothed and calmed by the sight of his beautiful porcelain pipe. 

Melicent was growing forgetful of self and thoughtful of others ; 
less arrogant, more gentle and pitiful. Her cheeks paled, and there 
were dark hollows under her eyes ; but her voice had gained a sweeter 
tone, and James Osborne, as he caught sight of her now and then as 
he came and went with the ambulances, thought that she was acquir- 
ing a new spiritual beauty which made her more irresistible while it 
lifted her farther away from him. 

One of Alice's patients was a Turco from Algiers, — an ugly, re- 
pulsive man who spoke only Arabic. Alice won his heart by bringing 
him a little bottle of attar of rose. The great nostrils dilated with 
pleasure, and the face lost the ferocious expression which had ren- 
dered it so frightful, and it only needed Alice's presence after that to 
make him tractable. " I shall make a study of him when he recovers," 
Alice remarked one morning. 

" You will never persuade him to sit for you," said Mr. Osborne. 
" The Mohammedans believe that they forfeit their souls if they allow 
any one to paint their portraits." 



IjS THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

Mr. Osborne did not understand the Turco's gratitude. Some 
weeks later, when Alice's desire was explained to him, he replied, 
through the interpretation of a chasseur d' Afrique, that as the young 
lady had kept his soul in his body, it was henceforth at her service ; 
and he presented himself at the studio, glorious in caftan and burnous, 
well content to aid her as a model. 

So the days, weary and sad as they were, were not without their 
recompense ; but perhaps the most salutary lesson which Melicent 
learned at this time was, that after all she was of very little use. 
The work of the entire Red Cross Society could avail so little to undo 
the horrors of war. Men were dying all about her, and medical 
science was powerless to repair the destruction which military science 
had so ingeniously made. " War is a poor business," said Mr. 
Osborne, sadly ; and Melicent could but agree with him as she 
thought : — 

" The air is full of farewells for the dying, 
And mournings for the dead ; 
The heart of Rachel, for her children crying. 
Will not be comforted." 



CHAPTER X. 




WHY THE SORTIE FAU.ED. 

^ HEN the Saxons retired from their attack on 
the outpost, they took up Captain Mliller 
and bore him within their own Hues. Here 
a Johanniter (surgeon) was waiting with 
two Krankentrager (litter-carriers) for the 
wounded, and to his care they committed 
the supposed deserter. 
' Wounded in the back, the right scapula 

splintered, it was bad, bad every way, the surgeon said, as he re- 
moved the gay cuirass which had been so disgraced. What could 
have been this young Frenchman's motive for deserting.? The 
wound was dressed, and the patient placed on his left side on the 
litter and carried several miles farther up the Marne to a lonely 
mill, which had been set apart as a temporary hospital. There were 
ho patients in it now, as they had been recently removed to Ver- 
sailles ; and Pere Gourdin, the honest miller, who had been much 
confused by the occupation of his premises by wounded Germans, 
had begun to recover from his daze and to rearrange his meal-bags 
with the hope of soon seeing the great wheel turn once more in 
its place. Great was his disgust, late this cold November night, on 
being roused from a dream of peace and plenty, of troops of don- 
keys bringing sacks of corn, by a demand for shelter for another 
wounded. "There is one comfort," he grumbled to himself, as he 



l8o THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

lighted a lamp, " there is one less Prussian to fight my country ; " 
but as the lio;ht flared on the blackened hair and such uniform as 
Captain Miiller still wore, he started. " Name of a pig ! " he exclaimed, 
" cest un Frangais ! " and he bestirred himself with more than usual 
alacrity to make his guest comfortable. Captain Miiller had so far 
revived before the surgeon retired for the night, as to be able to 
converse, and he earnestly begged the physician to send for some 
officer of rank, that he might make important disclosures. 

" You may make them to me," said the consequential physician, 
"and I will judge whether they are of sufficient importance to be 
carried to headquarters." 

Captain Miiller then disclosed the plan of forcing the German 
lines, and urged that the Prussian troops be concentrated in the 
direction of the intended sortie. 

" My bright fellow," replied the surgeon, " you will pardon me 
that I do not believe you are a German. You are a young man of 
ideas, but fortunately we Germans are also not born without brains. 
It was a brilliantly conceived scheme of yours, to pretend to be a 
deserter, and get us to mass our troops on some unimportant point 
while the French army directed its forces on some other and un- 
protected spot. Let me assure you, for your comfort, my young 
strategist, that we have also important designs on the very point 
on which you advise us to advance, and we will push our forces to- 
morrow through the Bois de Vincennes. So do not excite yourself 
by marching the German army about in your mind, for be you friend 
or foe to it, it can manage very well without your assistance." 

Pere Gourdin had listened thus far, and now retreated to the 
grinding-room, where his three sons were waiting his appearance. 
They drew up some camp-stools, which had been left by the Germans, 
and listened eagerly to what he had to say. 

"I do not understand it all exactly," said Pere Gourdin, "but 
there is to be a sortie somewhere, and the surgeon says the Saxons 




JOHANKITER WAITING FOR THE WOUNDED. 



IV/IV THE SORTIE FAILED. 



183 




are going to try to-morrow to get into the Bois de Vincennes, where 
there is likely no one to hinder their marching on Paris." 

*' To do that they must cross the Marne," said Jacques, who was 
always quickest at expedients; "and if we should cut our dam it 
would overflow its banks 
and carry away all the 
bridges, and they could not 
get across." 

" That would be a fine 
thing to do," said Jean. 
" Noin (£un chien ! but I 
would like to see our sur- 
geon's face when he saw 
the freshet." 

" We would all look 
very stupid," said Colin, 
assuming a look of more 
utter imbecility than the one he usually wore. " Eh ! Monsieur, the 
river has risen } But it is impossible ; it is not the spring of the year. 
It must be they have had an earlier season than usual in Russia, 
and the snow has already melted." 

" Tiens ! " exclaimed the Pere Gourdin ; " but if we cut the dam 
the water will carry away the mill." 

" All the better," said Jacques ; " then they cannot use our property 
any longer as a hospital for the invaders." 

"You are right," cried Jean; "and let it sweep away this beast 
of a surgeon with it. We may congratulate ourselves on having 
done one good night's work for France." 

Colin said nothing, but took down an axe from the wall. 

" Tiens., tiens l'^ said Pere Gourdin, "we must not be too hasty. I 
will go up and ask the cuirassier whether this is a good plan. If 
he approves we will do it." 



THE miller's boys. 



184 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

Cautiously the old man stole up to the granary, where Captain 
Miiller was lying, staring with fixed gaze before him, desperate, 
maddened that all his labor was lost through the pig-headedness of 
this Saxon surgeon. His wound was a matter of little consequence ; 
he would not have minded death in the service of his fatherland, 
he had risked it a thousand times already, and he would have 
thought himself happy to lay down his life now, if only the army 
could be warned through him and this sortie prevented. He did 
not believe the surgeon's information that an attack was already 
planned in this direction ; if so, it was likely to prove unsuccessful, 
for they could not know that the greater part of the French army 
were waiting beyond the Marne to make a desperate dash for 
liberty. 

As Pere Gourdin stole into the room, with his finger on his lip 
and a significant gesture toward the sleeping Krankentrager, Cap- 
tain Miiller looked up, wondering what could be the motive of his 
visit. 

The old man crept to his bedside and whispered his plan. 
" Would it be a good idea to cut the mill-dam, so that no troops 
could cross the Marne to-morrow ? " 

" Excellent, excellent ! the very thing ! " exclaimed Captain Miiller ; 
" how finely they would be penned in ! " And then he paused, for 
he knew that this old man must think that in some way this would 
serve France. " Yes, that would be grand," he said ; " and you shall 
be paid enough in louis d'or to rebuild your mill." 

The old miller nodded in delight. " I will go out and help the 
boys," he whispered ; " and when it is nearly done we will come in 
and carry you out." 

Up at the locks the four worked rapidly. It was a dark night, 
and the surgeon and his attendants within the mill slept soundly. 
The old man held the lantern for the lads, whose blows rained with 
hearty good-will. The water seemed to share in their excitement; 



WHY THE SORTIE FAILED. 1 85 

it swirled through the broken barriers as though eager to tear them 
away. 

" Quick, Father," shouted Jean ; " get out the cuirassier, or it will 
be too late." 

The miller ran along the shore ; but, racing with him, a float of 
logs came tearing down the mill-race, and beat against the little 
bridge which connected the mill with the mainland with the force 
of battering-rams. It flew apart in splinters just as the miller's 
foot was on its first plank, and he drew back in horror as he saw 
that he was too late. 

" Then beaten foam flew all about, 
And all the mighty floods were out! " 

The dam gave way with a tremendous crash. The leaping, 
plunging cataract seized the mill in its tawny arms, and lifting it 
clear from its foundations carried it down the wild river. The 
miller stood aghast as the old mill swept out of sight. His two 
older sons joined him a few moments later, carrying Colin, v/ho 
had been struck by a beam, and whom they had rescued with diffi- 
culty. " Hurry, Father," they cried, " the water will be stopped at 
the lower mills ; if the dam holds, then it will back in this direction, 
and all the country round be flooded." They hastened to higher 
ground, and none too quickly, for morning revealed a wide-spread 
inundation. 

The sortie had been unsuccessful. While General Vinoy's troops, 
composed chiefly of sailors from the forts, had almost secured L'Hay 
and Choisy, General Ducrot discovered that the Marne had over- 
flowed its bed, and that it was impossible to cross with the troops and 
make the little excursion to Orleans as had been planned. 

It was asserted that the rise in the river had been effected by the 
Saxons, who had received news of the plan and had cut a dam a 
little above the point decided upon for placing the pontoons, which 
were now too few to reach across ; but how such news could have 



i86 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



been transmitted was not known. No one knew that the mischief 
had been done with the best intentions toward France, and that the 
miller comforted Colin, now a helpless cripple, with the assurance 
that he had saved Paris. (See note, p. 198.) 



We left Sallie in an unenviable situation. Lieutenant Schwarz 
was in possession of the partly-burned letter which Captain MUller 
had sent her. She passed a sleepless night 
wondering^ what the result w^ould be. He would 
doubtless give it to Colonel von Lindenthal, and 
then, would she be arrested for suppressing in- 
formation } The Colonel had praised her in- 
ability to act the spy for the French ; would he 
be as much pleased on ascertaining her unwill- 
ingness to aid the Germans in the same way.? 
It almost seemed the part of wisdom to fore- 
stall any unpleasant consequences by imme- 
diate flight ; but where could she go } As she 
stood irresolute and almost desperate, Madame 
tapped at the door. 

'• Come and sit with me, cherie',' she said. 
" I am very lonely to-night. I have had a con- 
versation with our guest the Colonel. Cesi un 
vrai monstre ; he is not a man, he is a demon. 
He consumed for his dinner a soup of little 
sausages, a kors-d' cettvre of raw onions, an entire 
beefsteak, a pheasant, a pasty of eels, an Eng- 
lish plum-pudding, a great wedge of Limburger cheese, washed down 
by several kinds of German wine ! And he had the effrontery to 
tell me that this was because he had made a light breakfast on 
nothing but eggs and coffee. Eleven hard-boiled eggs, figurez- 
vous, and a quart pot of cafe mi lait ! Eleven cannon-balls ! No 




A SAILOR. 




THE GAMINS BURNING NAPOLEON IN EFFIGY. 



WHY THE SORTIE FAILED. 1 89 

wonder he is so eager for the bombardment of Paris to begin. A 
man with such a stomach has no room in his body for a heart." 

Sallie had had some faint idea of confiding in Madame, but it 
vanished now; the Countess had too many desagrements to confide 
to SalHe. She had been told that the gamins of the neighborhood 
were burning Napoleon III. in efiigy, and this insult rankled in her 
Bonapartist soul. " They consider him responsible for the war, and 
all the evils which it has brought upon us. They forget how eager 
they were for it themselves, how proud they have always been of 
the victories of the first Napoleon. It is he who is responsible 
for the military spirit of France, and it is to that spirit that we 
owe this war." 

"Has it ever struck you, Madame," Sallie asked quietly, "that 
both sides must suffer, no matter who wins.^ War seems to me every 
day more and more wicked. I cannot understand how any na- 
tion that considers itself civilized, not to say Christian, can author- 
ize it. 

But Madame was not in a mood to discuss generalities. " I do 
not know what is to become of our family after the Prussians leave," 
she said. " I foresee that we shall have another reign of terror ; for 
we shall have no o-overnment, and the lower classes, who are now 
fighting the Prussians, will turn upon us. My gardener here is 
a great man with the rabble of Versailles. He belongs to some 
secret society for the suppression of the aristocracy. Ah ! if we 
could only have a republic like yours in America, where all classes 
are at peace with one another ! " 

" Dear Madame, it is because we have no classes in America. 
Unhappily money makes a distinction, but it changes hands so 
frequently that the laborer of yesterday is often the father of the 
millionnaire of to-day; there are no rigid lines beyond which merit 
and enterprise may not cross, and the rich and the poor are so 
connected by family relationship that they form one class." 



I go THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

" That is it," said Madame ; " I have heard that it is no disgrace 
in America for a rich girl to marry a poor young man without family 
distinction, provided he is personally covime il faut. She could not 
do that here. Now it would doubtless be a safeguard for us if we 
had some connections in the peasant class or even in the bourgeoisie, 
some petroleuse who could be brought to the front in case a com- 
mune is decided upon ; but alas ! we have none, we are all titled ; 
and a title will presently be as bad a target as a red coat to a band 
of sharp-shooters. It is for that reason that it will be a politic thing 
for our son to marry out of the nobility, and even to leave the 
country for a time. Now, my dear child, your parents are far away, 
and I cannot address myself to them as would be proper, but I have 
become greatly attached to you; tell me frankly, do you not think 
our Jules an admirable young man } " 

As Madame spoke, Sallie heard a clatter of hoofs in the garden 
below, and a conviction flashed upon her that this commotion had 
something to do with herself. Perhaps she was to be arrested and 
torn from Madame, and she would never again have an opportunity 
to influence her. It was one of those intense moments when the 
mind decides and acts instantaneously. If she were to die in half 
an hour, what would be the most important thing with which to 
occupy this last twenty minutes .f* 

She drew a hassock close to Madame's feet, and taking her 
withered hand, spoke very calmly. " Dear Madame, I have not been 
quite frank with you. I do not know Jules very intimately, but 
I know him well enough to be quite sure that he loves a dear girl 
of my acquaintance very tenderly, and that she loves him in return, 
though she has too much pride to marry him without a welcome 
from you." 

" And this is doubtless one of your friends in Paris. I wish it 
had been you, dear child ; but love will go where it is sent, and 
Cupid is a very crooked marksman. Well, since you do not care 




THE CROWN PRINCE. 



M^HV THE SORTIE FAILED. 



193 



for my boy, ft is perhaps all for the best, and I must give my 
consent." 

" Yes, dear friend, it is certainly for the best, and Jules' choice 
is one of my friends, though not an American. She belongs to the 
class with which you just said it would be politic to form an alliance, 
but she is refined by nature and capable of culture. Her love for 
Jules will make her docile and teachable, a better daughter than I 
would be, Madame." 

But the Countess had stiffened ; she was quick of perception, and 
she at once divined of whom Sallie 
was speaking. 

" Do not mention her name," 
she said coldly; "my son marry 
a peasant ? Never ! " Both were 
silent for a few moments. The 
candles in the Sevres candelabra 
ran gutters, but Madame did not 
notice it, and Sallie quietly changed 
them. At length the older wo- 
man spoke, as though to herself : 
" Then Clemence is not dead. I 
am glad of that ; I feared she had 
drowned herself. She was a high- 
spirited little puss, and when I 
saw her last, and told her that she 
must give my son up, she an- 
swered that she would do so, but 
that some day I should entreat 
her in vain, — the insolent ! I have 
pictured her dead in my dreams, and my son has broken my heart 
with his reproaches, and I have dreamed that I did indeed entreat 
her in vain ; but if she is living, that is another thing. She will keep 




CLEMENCE AT THE FETE. 



194 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

her promise not to marry my son. So much the better ; little fear 
that I will ask her to break it. And yet she had a certain style. 
I have seen her at a fete in a pretty pink dress with ruffles, with a 
Parisian hat and parasol, really far more attractive than the daughter 
of the Duchesse de Sangbleu, — really with the air of a little princess. 
I don't wonder Jules fancied her; and if it were not for her relations, — 
but, Mere Babette and I on the same footing! Qtielle horreur I'' 

Madame's soliloquy was interrupted by a knock at the door, and 
Jacques the butler announced that Colonel von Lindenthal would 
like to see the ladies in the salon. Sallie rose mechanically. She 
felt that her time was out, the hour of her sentence had arrived; 
she had used her time to the best of her ability for Clemence, 
and had failed. 

Madame looked annoyed. " What can the Colonel want so late 
in the evening.? My nerves are all unstrung. Go to him for me, 
dear child ; and Jacques, bring me a glass of cassis (black currant 
wine), and tell Mathilde to come and comb my hair, — that is always 
soothing; only the awkward one has not quite the knack of 
Clemence." 

Sallie descended to the salon, and to her surprise found only 
Lieutenant Schwarz. " I knew you would not answer a summons 
of mine, Mademoiselle," he said, in explanation. "The Colonel has 
been called to headquarters, and I wanted to apologize for my rude- 
ness, and to return this partly-destroyed letter. You need not have 
burned it. It is from an honorable man. Captain Miiller is well 
known to me. We were students together at Heidelberg, and what- 
ever correspondence you may have with him, whether of a political or 
a personal nature, shall always have my respectful consideration." 

The Lieutenant bowed stiffly, but profoundly; he was evidently 
embarrassed. Sallie, much surprised at the turn matters had taken, 
accepted the letter and his apology, and left him as quickly as 
possible. So there was no need for haste, after all, and she might 



WHY THE SORTIE FAILED. 1 97 

have chosen a better time for speaking to Madame. But was it best 
to put off important matters when life was so uncertain ? A line 
from an old hymn — 

" Live this day as 't were thy last," 

came to her mind, and on the whole she was glad that she had 
spoken. Long after, as Melicent and she compared notes of their 
efforts in behalf of this distressed couple, the grotesque side of the 
affair appealed to her. 

" While the mother was proposing to you," said Melicent, " the 
father was proposing to me. What would have become of poor Jules 
if we had both accepted him, when he cared for neither of us ? " 

" Fortunately," said Sallie, " an American girl, although romantic 
enough to enjoy and sympathize in a little love-story acted before 
her eyes, is not so eager for matrimony or crazy for a title as quite to 
make a fool of herself." 

Sallie's conversation with the Countess was not so inopportune 
as she had imagined. It sank deep into Madame's conscience, and 
wrought slowly and silently, while she made no outward sign except 
to grow more pettish and captious. 

Days went by. The grand marshal Winter arrived, to annoy 
both French and Germans, — not a hearty, exhilarating winter, with 
dry snow and merry sleigh-rides, but a rainy, deadly cold creeping 
into the joints and freezing the marrow. The beds at Versailles 
were filled with pneumonia patients, and rheumatism lamed more 
soldiers than the Franctireurs. The Crown Prince was assiduous 
in his care for the wounded, both French and Prussian. His 
humanitarian ideas formed a strong contrast to Bismarck's want 
of sensibility, and the suffering all around him must have deeply 
pained his noble heart. 

One day early in December Colonel von Lindenthal came to 
Sallie with some startling news. A house carried away by a freshet 
had gone to pieces against one of the bridges of the river, and some 
persons clinging to the timbers had been rescued by the German 



198 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

soldiers ; among them was a wounded French cuirassier. He had 
been taken to Versailles ; but the vicissitudes through which he had 
passed, in addition to his wound, had been too much for him, and 
he was now raving in brain fever. Some articles of his clothing 
bore the name Jules de Beaumont, and the Colonel wished Sallie to 
ascertain whether he was a relative of Madame. 

It was a great shock, but Sallie broke it very tenderly to the 
Countess; and as Colonel von Lindenthal offered to arrange for the 
wounded man to be brought directly to his own home, Jules' old 
room was put in order for his reception. 

Very carefully the Krankentrager brought him in and laid him 
upon his bed. Madame, unwilling to betray her emotion, kept in 
the next room until the men had gone; then she dropped Sallies 
hand and flew into the sick-chamber. Sallie heard a strange shriek, 
and the cry, " This is not my son ! " then a heavy fall, and, following, 
found Madame lying by the bed in a swoon, while the face on the 
pillow was not that of Jules de Beaumont, but of Captain Mliller. 



Note. Edward King, in his " Europe in Storm and Calm," thus describes the result of 
the actions on the Marne : — 

" The failure of the French to cross the Marne in the night of the 28th, gave the Germans 
twenty-four hours in which to concentrate fresh troops. On the 30th of November, early in the 
morning, the two first French divisions crossed the river [which we may imagine had fallen, 
though Mr. King believes that the engineers had now supplied the needed pontoons]. A series 
of battles took place along the plateau of Avron on the heights of Montmddy, Creteil, Joinville- 
le-Pont, Noisy-le-Grand, and Villiers-sur-Marne. 

" The French troops at first fought magnificently against the vast numbers of the enemy 
which now flocked down upon them. 

" The fighting lasted for five days. On the 4th of December General Ducrot announced 
that he had brought his army back across the Marne, because he was convinced that new efforts 
in a direction where the enemy had had plenty of time to concentrate all its forces would be 
useless. The whole country for miles around was filled with the marks of the sanguinary 
struggle. Ten thousand dead men of the two races were strewn along the frozen hills, and 
nothing had been done to change the destiny of Paris. On the evening of the 6th of Decem- 
ber Von Moltke informed General Trochu, in a note of icy politeness and Spartan brevity, that 
the army of the Loire had been defeated on the previous day near Orleans, and that the city 
had been occupied by the victorious [German] troops. Starvation and bitter winter weather 
had come at the close of an unsuccessful sortie, to urge the Parisians to yield ; yet they held 
out with a bravery which has never been surpassed in the history of the world." 



CHAPTER XL 



A SAD CHRISTMAS-TIDE. 




ADA ME did not rally, but passed from one faint- 
ing fit into another, and when consciousness 
was restored seemed not to be quite sane. She 
wept hysterically, and insisted that the Germans 
had killed her son and had tried to palm off 
this stranger upon her. Mathilde waited upon 
the wounded soldier (though with evident re- 
luctance when she ascertained that he was not 
a Frenchman), but she was helpless as regarded Madame, and poor 
Sallie's hands were more than full. It was late at nieht before the 
Countess sank into a troubled sleep and Sallie could creep downstairs 
and make a report to Colonel von Lindenthal. He was much surprised 
to hear that their guest was Captain Mliller, and sent for a surgeon at 
once, with the intention of having him sent back to the hospital. The 
doctor, however, was of the opinion that the wounded man had already 
been moved about too much, and must be kept very quiet. Madame 
awoke during the physician's visit, and was so wild and incoherent that 
Sallie asked him to see her. He looked very grave, and having heard 
the circumstances, told Sallie that the Countess was sufferino- from 
a severe nervous shock, and was in a very critical condition. 

Dark indeed were the days which followed. The sleet beat drearily 
upon the windows, and the wistaria struck its leafless branches against 
the pane with the same restless motion with which Madame tossed 
her arms from side to side. 



200 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

There was much suffering among the Germans. The hospital 
was full, and the poor men in the camp were all attacked with Iieim- 
weh (homesickness) as they thought of the merry holiday season ap- 
proaching, and the good Fratc and children at home, with no father to 
enjoy with them their Christmas-tree, An impatience to finish the 
siege and to march for home seized them, and they clamored for the 
bombardment which was delayed for some to them unaccountable 
reason. It seemed to be the German policy to wait, before resorting 
to this extreme measure, until the endurance of Paris should be worn 
out by hardship and famine. Christmas came, and it was pitiful to see 
how the soldiers tried to celebrate that day so dear to every German 
heart. Colonel von Lindenthal told of one Christmas-tree which he had 
seen made of a sheaf of guns, tallow candles fastened to the bayonets, 
and the gifts sent through the mail by wives and sweethearts festooned 
between them. The Colonel had received a warm knitted comforter 
from his own good Frau ; and Lieutenant Schwarz showed Sallie an 
elaborate watch-guard which a certain Fraulein Minna, of Dresden, had 
braided for him of her own hair. The Lieutenant was very kind, try- 
ing in every possible way to make amends for his rudeness in the 
matter of the letter. He sat with Captain Miiller while he needed an 
attendant at night, and brought little delicacies, and ran errands, with 
serene good-humor. Captain Miiller improved, but Madame's condi- 
tion grew worse, and Sallie felt her own health giving way between 
her double charges. Pierre the gardener was a great help to her, and 
shared with Lieutenant Schwarz in the care of Captain Miiller. One 
morning, after a sleepless night spent by Madame's bedside, Sallie 
ran down to the gate-lodge to consult Pierre. 

" Is there no nurse whom I can get to help me } " she asked ; " I 
am willing to do all I can, but, oh, Pierre, I am afraid I shall give out, 
or perhaps fall asleep when I ought to be watching." 

Pierre rubbed his poll until his stubby hair resembled a straw- 
stack. Suddenly his look of perplexity changed to one of inspiration. 



«iiiMk( 



YJmt 




A SAD CHRISTMAS-TIDE. 



20' 



" I have It," he exclaimed. " Mere Babette ! " 

"I don't know," Sallie replied dubiously; but her limbs trembled 
with fatigue, and her brain reeled giddily. She returned to the sick- 
chamber, and Pierre set out on foot for Ferrieres ; for all the horses at 
Versailles had been appro- 
priated by the conquerors. 

Three days later, Mere 
Babette took the weary 
girl's place, and Sallie slept 
soundly for twenty-four 
hours. After this long re- 
freshing rest she was able 
to take her turn with the 
faithful old woman. She 
dreaded the time when 
Madame should recognize 
her nurse ; but, strange to 
say, the meeting created no 
excitement on the part of 
the sick woman. She said, 
simply, " Is that you, my 
good Babette } " and closed her eyes quite contentedly. 

As she grew stronger, the two women, of such different stations in 
life, talked of the past, and Sallie learned that Mere Babette had been 
Madame's sceur de lait, — the child of Madame's nurse, and the play- 
mate of her childhood. Madame was quite sure that her son had 
been killed ; and she talked of him freely to Mere Babette, and of his 
affection for Clemence. 

" If he had lived," she said, " the young people might have married, 
and have begun a new life away in America, where everything is so 
different from here." 

Madame had passed through a cruel discipline, but it was needed 




AT Pierre's cottage. 



204 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



to bend her pride ; and only in the light of her son's death could this 
marriage have seemed possible to her. Mere Babette, who had re- 
ceived Alice's letter, was more hopeful ; but she dared not encourage 
Madame too much, for fear that her heavenly frame of mind might 
change to a more worldly one. 

Mere Babette was 
very happy just now 
with a trembling kind 
of happiness which 
was hardly sure of it- 
self, and when not on 
duty with the Coun- 
tess she was frequent- 
ly to be seen at the 
church waiting for 
the confessor or put- 
ting up prayers for 
Clemence, 

Now and then 
Sallie glanced into 
the next room where 
Pierre was tending 
Captain Miiller since 
he had recovered con- 
sciousness. She was 
shyer than at first, 
though she longed to 
hear of her friends 
at the Maison Duval; 
but there came a time 
when he was able to 
walk about, and when the other officers helped him into the salon, and 




WAITING FOR THE CONFESSOR. 



A SAD CHRISTMAS-TIDE. 207 

Colonel von Lindenthal had him bolstered in his favorite fauteuil, — the 
one in which the Empress had sat. The Crown Prince visited him, 
and other of his comrades dropped in to cheer his weariness and to 
read him the German papers. In spite of these attentions he was 
often listless and absent-minded, or would look up quickly when a 
light footstep sounded in the hall, or the click of a French-heeled 
slipper on the waxed staircase. Sallie's duties with Madame did not 
account for this continued avoidance, and he began to feel that she 
might be a little kinder. He had confused memories of her bend- 
ing over him in his delirium, administering medicines, flitting about 
his room like a ministering angel ; but now she never entered the 
chamber. She had come into the salon once and had gravely shaken 
hands with him in the presence of Colonel von Lindenthal and Lieu- 
tenant Schwarz, congratulating him upon his recovery ; but there were 
hours when she knew him to be quite alone, when she might have 
given him an opportunity to explain any misunderstanding which 
there might be between them, and still she kept herself in strict 
seclusion. One day, when he was feeling a little stronger than usual, 
he opened the piano with the arm that was not strapped to his side, 
and began with one hand to play the air, — 

"Wenn i' komm', wenn i' komm', wenn i' wiedrum komm', 
Kehr ich, mein Schatz, bei dir." 

Sallie heard it, and, what was more, the Captain knew that she 
heard it, for a quick step crossed the floor in the room above, and the 
door closed. Sallie had shut out the sound. The young soldier 
flushed hotly, then, returning to his chair, sat staring moodily before 
him until the return of Colonel von Lindenthal. That good man 
noticed his depression. 

"You are too much alone," he said; "you need company to cheer 
you up. Now, you are not to have your dinner brought in here to-day, 
but we will have you wheeled into the dining-room to dine v/ith us." 



208 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



A little later, Colonel von Lindenthal sent a request to SalHe to 
preside at the table if Madame did not require her presence. As the 
Countess was more comfortable than usual, Sallie could not refuse, 
and appeared at dinner in a pretty gray cashmere with a little shawl 
of pink China crepe drawn down in a prim way over her shoulders. 
It had been a very becoming fichu ; but just now the bright color 
served as a contrast to Sallie's pale cheeks, and Captain MUller, 
who sat opposite, noticed how thin and white she had grown, and 
the dark lines under her eyes. 

" Has this come through care of me ? " he thought, self-reproach- 
fully; and then he banished the idea. Surely she did not care for 
him sufficiently to weary herself on his account. 

A German journalist was their guest that day, — a painfully plain 

young man, partially bald in spite of his 
youth, his weak eyes masked with stu- 
dent spectacles. He talked philosophy, 
and looked greatly surprised when Sallie 
showed herself conversant with Kant and 
Wopcke. The discussion passed to other 
topics, — the idea of an international con- 
gress which should decide all matters of 
dispute between nations, and do away 
forever with the horrors of war. Sallie 
spoke warmly on this subject, saying that 
she did not see how a Christian could 
possibly justify war. 
Captain Mliller replied by citing Count von Bismarck's deep sense 
of personal responsibility to God. 

" His favorite motto is ' Gott mit uns!' I have heard him say," he 
added, "that he cannot understand how men can live together, each 
doing his duty, without faith in a God who wills what is good, in a 
Supreme Judge, and in a future life." 




" HE TALKED PHILOSOPHY. 



A SAD CHRISTMAS-TIDE. 209 

*' Yes," said Colonel von Lindenthal, " I remember his remarking, 
one evening at Ferrieres, ' If I could not count upon my God, assuredly 
I should not do so upon earthly masters.' " 

" That is very noble," Sallie replied ; " I cannot help admiring such 
earnestness. Your chief's sense of responsibility to God, and convic- 
tion that he is upheld by Him, is no doubt the secret of his great- 
ness. And yet is it not possible that he may be mistaken in what he 
conceives to be God's will? So many crimes have been committed 
in the name of religion, so many martyrs burned by men who verily 
believed that they were doing God service, that it is at least possible 
that future ages may refuse to believe that God willed this war." 

" But is it not better," queried Captain Muller, " to make a mis- 
take conscientiously, than to throw over all idea of duty, living only 
for the pleasure of the day, every man for himself, in a spirit of un- 
bridled selfishness and license ? Contrast the Communistic authori- 
zation of theft, implied in its assertion of the immorality of property, 
which must end in universal riot and pillage, with the German idea 
that God rules in the earthly ruler, and tell me whether the French 
or the German nation rests on surer foundations." 

Sallie shook her head lightly. " I am not taking sides with poor 
France," she replied, " only arguing against war in the abstract." 

" And you have upheld your side of the argument very well," 
said Colonel von Lindenthal, gallantly. " I fear that we cannot bring 
Holy Writ to our support in this matter, though the worthy Frau von 
Bismarck has recently sent a Bible by mail to her husband (fearing, as 
she said, that there were none to be found in France), in order that 
he might be able to read the prophecy in it against the French." 

" And pray what was it } " Sallie asked. 

" The word ' France ' was not used," replied Colonel von Linden- 
thal, "but it is obvious that the French are meant: 'I say unto thee 
that the wicked shall be rooted out.' " 

A general laugh followed, and Colonel von Lindenthal gave Sallie 

14 



2IO THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

his arm, asking her to play for them, as he had greatly missed the 
piano during their hospital season. 

" A German," he said, " cannot exist without music ; and some of 
our soldiers have carried pianos from the unoccupied houses to the 
trenches, and hold open-air concerts at which the French mitrailleuses 
are liable any moment to assist." 

Sallie seated herself at the instrument, and " Songs without 
Words " and " Traumerei " presently filled the soldiers' hearts with 
longing for home. Jacques lighted the candles in the sconces, and 
Sallie played on, not noticing that an aide had summoned the officers 
away, and that her only auditor was Captain Miiller. When she be- 
came aware of this she rose, saying that she must go to Madame. 

" Wait a moment," he pleaded. " I have been living for a long time 
with your friends in Paris ; do you not wish to hear from them } " 

" Tell me only," Sallie replied, " whether they are all well." 

" Then tell me first whether you are angry with me for having 
used your papers and a part of your costume to effect my entrance 
into the city." 

" I do not know to what extent you deceived my friends, or what 
use you made of the intimacy which they so trustfully afforded you." 

" No dishonorable use, I assure you ; " and the Captain, certain 
that he now understood the cause of Sallie's coldness, poured forth 
an account of his stay at the Maison Duval, praising the goodness 
of Mrs. Davenport and the two girls, and setting forth the entire 
experience in such an amusing and interesting manner, that Sallie, 
who had thought to leave at once, stood on the threshold for fully 
an hour. She might have remained longer, had not Mere Babette 
crept downstairs to say that Madame had insisted on rising and 
being dressed, and now wanted to come down to the salon. 

" If she is strong enough, I would like to tell her about her son," 
said Captain Miiller; and Sallie flew upstairs, anxious to communicate 
to Madame the relief and happiness which she felt in hearing from her 



A SAD CHRISTMAS-TIDE. 



213 



own dear ones. It was some time before she could persuade the Coun- 
tess to see the man who had given her such a shock. Sallie patiently- 
explained all the circumstances, and Madame finally understood that 
in filching her son's uniform the spy had probably received a shot 
intended for Jules, while the young man himself was safe in Paris. 
After this her impatience to see Captain Mliller fully equalled her 
former aversion. Sallie and Mere Babette assisted her to descend, 
and the two convalescents took each other's hands and looked into 
each other's faces, not as enemies, but as friends. 

" It is all incroyable ! " said Madame, after a long conversation, in 
which Captain Mliller had answered a hundred questions, and had told 
her of the changed aspect of Paris, — of the Grand Opera, with its 
lower story converted into a reservoir of water, and the upper stories 
into warerooms of military supplies; of tX^o. foyers of the different thea- 
tres used as hospitals, and sisters of charity elbowing the actresses 
in the passages ; of the elephants and other animals at the Jardin des 
Plantes slaughtered and sold as food ; of the Grande Hotel appropri- 
ated as the Ambulance de la Presse ; of the suffering met by prompt 
charity, and the heroism developed from frivolity. When Madame 
heard all this she shook her head like one dazed. " I would no longer 
recognize my Paris. Do not people now drive in the afternoon on 
the Avenue de I'lmperatrice } " 

Captain Mliller smiled. " I learned before I left Paris," he said, 
" that all carriage horses were to be requisitioned by the Government 
for the meat supply, and there is no longer any Avenue de I'lmpera- 
trice ; it is now called the Avenue d'Uhric, from the defender of 
Strasburg, and it is flanked by the white tents of the American 
Ambulance." 

Madame thought for a few moments. " If there is no longer any 
'society,'" she said, "then all the artificial distinctions of life must 
have disappeared, and people must meet each other on the plane of a 
common humanity." 



214 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

" What you say Is very nearly true," Captain MUller replied ; " it 
is one of the good effects of this war, — in which Miss Sallie here will 
recognize nothing but evil, — that the French people have greatly 
changed in character. They have lost their vanity to a great extent, 
have developed from volatile braggarts into men of action and en- 
durance. Defeat and suffering have taught them lessons for which 
they will be the nobler and better for a generation to come." 

'■'' Pauvre France ! pauvre France f" said Madame, her eyes filling 
with tears ; " but you assure me that my son is safe, and that we shall 
soon have peace." 

As she spoke, a heavy detonation shook the house, and Lieutenant 
Schwarz entered the building, exclaiming gayly, " The bombardment ! 
at last the bombardment has begun ! They have unmasked two bat- 
teries of Krupp guns, and are playing on the forts. When they are 
dismantled, Paris will be at our mercy." 

" Monstre ! " shrieked Madame ; " have you not inflicted enough 
misery upon us .-^ " 

"It was necessary, my dear Madame," said Captain Mliller; "with- 
out this final measure, Paris would never consent to capitulation." 



CHAPTER XII. 




THE BOMBARDMENT AND THE LAST SORTIE. 

^^ITHIN Paris the Christmas-tide was even a 
sadder, wearier season than without the walls. 
Alice found her occupations at the hospital 
so absorbing that she gave up her studio, 
and Madame Duval rented it to an officer. 
Military accoutrements, bits of armor, and 
manly adornments now mingled with the 
paint-brushes, the easels, sketches, and stud- 
ies, giving the room a bizarre and incoherent aspect, but one not un- 
common in Paris; for nearly all the artists and art-students had enlisted. 
De Neuville, Berne Bellecour, and Detaille found the campaign a stern 
university in which thrilling scenes were impressed upon their memo- 
ries, and they became conversant with all the details of military life, 
which showed themselves afterward in their many spirited pictures. 
Quite an army of battle-painters sprang up in Paris after the war; but 
it would be a mistake to argue from this fact that military ardor had 
increased in France. On the contrary, it had received a salutary check, 
and the observant on-looker could detect in these very paintings more 
of the pathetic than the triumphant ; a protest against the horrors of 
war, rather than an attempt to rouse the bloodthirsty instincts. The 
most promising young artist in France at this time was Henri Regnault. 
He had obtained the Prix de Rome at the Academic des Beaux Arts, 
which enables the successful competitor to live four years in Rome at 



2l6 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



the expense of the French Government. He had painted some very 
remarkable pictures, among others, " Automedon breaking the Horses 
of Achilles," the portrait of General Prim, and the " Execution sans 
Jugement," — an Oriental scene of horrible realism and wonderful color, 
depicting a Moor of majestic bearing who has just decapitated a man, 






%, 




BITS OF ARMOR, ETC. 



and is looking with calm, impassive features at the dissevered head, 
while the blood drips from one little pool to another down the white 
marble staircase. He painted this just at the breaking out of the war, 
in his fascinating studio at Tangier, Africa. He was completely in 
love with the wonderful country in which he had begun to paint, with 



THE BOMBARDAfENT AND THE LAST SORTIE. 



217 



1 . u.> r -^^^ 




the picturesque costumes and animals, the brilliant sunshine, the Moor- 
ish architecture, the tropical foliage, and his brain was teeming with 
subjects for new pictures ; but at the first call to arms, although exempt 
from military service, he hastened home to enlist. He was a friend of 
Jules de Beaumont, and Jules had brought him to the Maison Duval, 
where his engaging manners and his brilliant conversation had made 
a most favorable impression. When animated, he 
was strikingly handsome, his eyes sparkling with 
the enthusiasm of genius while he described Africa. 
He loved a tropical climate, and 
the intense cold of the nights 
at Mont Valerien, where soldiers 
sometimes had their limbs fro- 
zen, was harder for 
him to bear than the 
danger; but he never 
complained, or sought 
in any way to shirk 
his duties. The Q-irls 
knew that he was 
betrothed to a young 
girl whom he tenderly 
loved, and at the call 
of country he had set 
aside ambition and af- 
fection. It was sub- 
lime; and yet as Alice 
thought of the mag- 
nificent way in which 
he might still serve 
France, it seemed to 



her a foolish thing to 



ON THE RAMPARTS. 



2l8 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

put this exceptionally talented young man to such wanton risk. But 
after all, was there a single life then so worthless that it could be 
truthfully said that this was the best use to which it could be put ? 

Certainly Jules de Beaumont, light as he was, might serve a better 
purpose than to count one in the long category of Prussian triumphs, 
if only for the sake of three hearts whose entire affection was centred 
in him. 

The poor Count was very wretched. He wandered about, feverishly 
begging every one to aid in clearing his son from the charge of deser- 
tion under which he lay; and at last Jules was cleared. Mr. Osborne, 
incited by Melicent, who had said, " You will do it for my sake," worked 
like a brother in his behalf. Both Alphonse and he testified to the 
presence of the spy, and proved that he must have stolen the cuiras- 
sier's uniform. Mrs. Davenport, who was interviewed on the subject, 
made a very clear statement, and was herself exonerated from any in- 
tention of harboring a spy. Clemence also proved an alibi for Jules, 
testifying that he was bidding her farewell in the little churchyard at 
the time when the sentinel at the barrier thought he saw him ride by 
toward Vincennes. Jean Roussel, who had been suffering the agonies 
of remorse, was absolutely thunderstruck at seeing his rival once more 
in the land of the living. He insisted that he had shot him in the 
back, and that the Saxons had afterward come and carried away his 
body. It was a miracle that he should stand there safe and sound. 
Others testified that they had seen Jules at the time that Jean Roussel 
persisted that he was lying wounded under his watch ; and the conclu- 
sion became evident that this was a case of mistaken identity. 

The Comte de Beaumont felt sure that the testimony of Clemence 
had more weight with the judges than all the rest put together, and 
that his son really owed his life to her. He took the young girl by the 
hand, after Jules was pronounced cleared, and said in his bombastic 
manner, which always seemed to Melicent more pathetic than amusing, 
" Mademoiselle, I have the honor to thank you for the distinguished 




iiii"'-"' 



THE BOMBARDMENT AND THE LAST SORTIE. 221 

service which you have rendered our family to-day. Should this un- 
happy war leave me still the proud and happy father which I now am, 
Madame the Countess de Beaumont and myself will have the felicity 
to — to — " But here the Count broke down. He could not promise 
that his proud wife would ever ask Mere Babette to grant them her 
daughter in marriage, — he did not even dare ask her, and he looked 
helplessly from one to another. Jules came manfully to the rescue. 

" Never mind, Father," he said cheerfully, " it is a great deal to 
us that you appreciate Clemence ; I will myself arrange matters with 
Mother. She will give her consent when she understands everything; 
and Clemence is prouder still, for she will not marry me without it. 
After the war we shall all be happy again." 

After the war! How confidently they all spoke; but though Paris 
had suffered severely, the end was not yet. As Jules received the 
congratulations of his friend Henri Regnault, the young man added, 
" Tieits ! Oest le moment psychologique ; the dome of the Pantheon has 
been struck." 

Some one in authority in the German army had said that the bom- 
bardment would begin at the proper psychological moment, meaning 
at the exact time when it would have the greatest effect upon minds 
worn out by endurance carried to the utmost. All Paris had made 
sport of the expression, as one of pedantic German philosophy. It be- 
came a catchword with all classes. Madame Duval's customers would 
greet her with the expression, " I am hungry ; the psychological mo- 
ment has arrived to dine." Alphonse had a psychological moment for 
shaving, Clemence for doing each of her little household duties. The 
French kept up their hearts with raillery and caricature ; they mocked 
at the idea that they could ever be disheartened. These brutes of 
Prussians should see that it was not so easy a thing to break their 
spirit. Even after the bombardment began, after the first shock of 
seeing the great projectiles fall, and buildings struck from time to time 
in the Latin Quarter, the natural French gayety reasserted itself. Com- 



2 22 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

panics were formed to put out the fires. People rushed to the neigh- 
borhood of dangerous quarters as though they were going to a spec- 
tacle. A shell would scarcely fall before it was seized upon by gamins 
and sold as a souvenir of the siege. At Auteuil an innkeeper who had 
had his house struck several times changed his sign to Aii, Rendezvous 
des Obits (The Meeting-place of the Bomb-shells), and it became a 
popular place of resort. People were killed daily in the streets, but 
business was uninterrupted. It is related that when the street boys 
saw an especially dudish young man or a portly bourgeois immaculately 
dressed, picking his way daintily in a very muddy street, they would 
maliciously shout, "" L'obus, Vobus l'' and the frightened exquisite would 
not fail to prostrate himself in the mud, to the great amusement of the 
young rascal. Comparatively few people moved from the Latin Quar- 
ter, which was the part of the city exposed. Buildings were struck all 
around them, — the Hopital de la Pitie, the Church of St. Sulpice, the 
Sorbonne, the Val de Grace, the Luxembourg Museum, and parts of 
the Jardin des Plantes. In old Fort Issy one hundred men were killed 
and more wounded, and four hundred fell ill of exposure and privation. 
Under the continued strain the gayety and derision with which 
the bombardment had at first been greeted diminished. A patient 
shrug of the shoulders took the place of the caustic remark. People 
grew weary at last, waiting for something, they knew not what, to 
happen. Evidently no foreign power would interfere in their behalf. 
The army of the Loire, from which they had hoped great things, they 
now understood was beaten. There was no help from Marseilles, from 
Tours, or from Orleans. Add to this, that food was becoming scarce. 
The bread now issued was made of rice, of oats, of hay, of every 
imaginable substitute for flour. Little by little, typhus was wasting 
the population ; and yet the Government, who knew well that they 
must come to it at last, did not yet dare to whisper " Capitulation." 
There was more clear o-rit in the French character than Bismarck 
had counted upon ; but it was hard for them to endure aimlessly, and 



THE BOMBARDMENT AND THE LAST SORTIE. 223 

toward the middle of January a murmur arose among the populace 
and among the soldiers: "Why do we not do something? What 
are we waiting for? If these cowardly Germans will not attack us, 
let us sally out to meet them, and risk the combat in the open field." 

Their experience at Vincennes had not taught them wisdom, and 
all Paris now clamored for a last decisive sortie. It was arranged for 
the 19th, in the direction of Montretout and Buzenval. James Osborne, 
who went out with the ambulances whenever they were summoned, had 
been up all night in order to be ready for an early start. At three 
o'clock the long line of carriages was ordered forward. The conva- 
lescents had been removed from the American Hospital, and many 
of the tents were empty. Melicent passed from one to another, 
arranging everything for the reception of their guests. The last 
glimpse that James Osborne caught of her before he sprang to his seat 
beside the driver showed her with her arms filled with clean linen, 
hastening to arrange another cot. 

" How that girl loves to get ready for company! " he thought. " It 
was always so at her own home in more cheerful days. She was con- 
tinually giving dainty touches to the rooms which were to be occupied 
by her friends. I verily believe that her favorite employ in heaven 
will be to set in order the ' many mansions.' " And as he rode on in 
the chill fog of the early morning, the words, " I go to prepare a place 
for you," kept recurring to his mind like a premonition of death. 

And yet the American Hospital was not a gloomy place. At the 
Universal Exposition a large exhibit had been made of our hospital 
appliances, and these had not been removed from the city. At the 
breaking out of the war all that was necessary was to spread the tents 
along the Avenue de I'lmperatrice. It was a new idea in Paris, this 
hospital under canvas, but it was found to be much better, with its per- 
fect ventilation, than the close rooms of the hotels. The ground was 
dried and heated by subterranean furnaces, and it was a well-admitted 
fact that a greater proportion of patients recovered here than at the 



224 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



other hospitals. Both here and throughout the city suspense was at 
its utmost after the departure of the troops for the last sortie. The 
first bulletins displayed at the Rue Drouot announced that the redoubt 
of Montretout had been taken after a brilliant action, and that the army 
had gained the Park of Buzenval. An intensely excited crowd waited 
for further news. The second bulletin was more doubtful in character; 
later, it was admitted that the French had been repulsed ; and finally, 
late at night, all Paris knew that its troops had been beaten, driven 
back with immense losses by the German artillery. It was at this last 
fight that Regnault fell, possibly the last man killed by the Prussians. 
I can do no better than to quote from M. Cazalis the account of the 
search for Regnault by his friend Clairin : — 

" About four, — night was falling, — the fight raged furiously in a wood near 
the park of Buzenval. In the tumult of the engagement the two friends, who 
had hitherto kept near to each other, were separated. The retreat was sounded, 
Clairin sought Regnault and could not find him ; he ran to the front, called, 
rejoined his company, still could not find him, returned between the trees which 
the dying were supporting their backs against, went from one body to another, 
calling his friend's name all through the gloomy wood, and hearing no answer- 
ing voice." 

Mr. Hammerton continues the account : — 

" Clairin sought anxiously the whole night through. At last he found a 
man who had seen Regnault, just when the retreat sounded, go near the wall 
behind which the Prussians were hiding themselves. Regnault had been called 
for at this moment, but he had answered, ' I shall fire my last shot, and 
come immediately.' The man believed that an instant after this he had seen 
Regnault fall. 

" Clairin returned to Paris after a fruitless search, and at six all his worst 
apprehensions were fully confirmed. News was brought in by an ambulancier 
that Regnault had been found, and in evidence he brought a little chain with a 
silver tear. This tear had been given to him by his betrothed ; and when she 
gave it she had said, ' Take it now that I am happy, but you must give it back 
to me the first time you make me weep.' And now the tear was brought back 
to her, and she wept." 



THE BOMBARDMENT AND THE LAST SORTIE. 225 

On the next Sunday two hundred bodies were laid in the ceme- 
tery of Pere-la-Chaise, among them that of Henri Regnault Father 
Gratry, who was to have married them, wrote a noble letter to 
Regnault's betrothed. 

"Lift up your soul!" he said; "this world is not a cruel game or 
a vain appearance. To die for a sacred cause cannot be nothingness 
and vanity. Such an act, such a gift of self, has a reality which sub- 
sists. No small thing is lost, still less anything great. Every martyr 
has his eternal life in full and substantial truth." 

High words ; but does not ordinary life furnish sufficient occasion 
for heroism } And what if the first cause, when carefully examined, 
were hardly worth dying for, — if all this devotion and self-sacrifice 
were poured forth in mistake ? Then it was none the less sublime 
in the giver, while they who were responsible for all this wilful waste 
were all the more criminal. 

Francisque Sarcey is right when, in relating these events, he is 
forced to cry out : " Oh ! r abominable et stiipide chose que la guerre ! " 



15 



CHAPTER XIII. 




PEACE AND OTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 

^^^PHE American Ambulance was rapidly filled after 
the day at Montretout. All connected with 
the hospital were overworked, and it was not 
until several days after the affair that Meli- 
cent's friend, the surgeon, said to her, " There 
is an acquaintance of yours in Tent K; perhaps 
you have not heard that he is wounded." 

" Jules de Beaumont, then, has been shot," 
Melicent exclaimed ; " will he recover } " 
"He will recover; though he is not Jules de Beaumont, but our 
friend the newspaper correspondent." 

" But James Osborne was a non-combatant ; he was even under the 
protection of the Red Cross." 

" It afforded him very poor protection, for a chance shot went 
directly through his arm badge. It was his own fault for venturing 
on the field too soon to collect the wounded." 

Montretout had been a terrible day for James Osborne. He had 
watched the fight from a distance. The French massed steadily up 
into the redoubt of Montretout, until a torrent of German reserves 
in glittering helmets swept down upon them, driving them out of 
their position. To his surprise, the French returned to the charge 



PEACE AND OTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 



227 



rushing furiously up the hill, clubbing their chassepots, fighting des- 
perately hand to hand. It was like the charge of the Louisiana 
Tigers at Gettysburg. They fought with almost superhuman energy; 
the fortunes of the entire war hung on that particular charge, for 
from Montretout, Versailles could be shelled. 

The Countess de Beaumont and Sallie watched the affair with spy- 
glasses from the roof of Villa Beaumont, Captain MUller at their side. 

" If they could only have managed to make 
the sortie two hours earlier, before we became 
informed of their plans and were ready for 
them, they might have swept into Ver- 
sailles and captured the Emperor himself. 

But our spies have done us good service, as 

1 " 
usual. 

Madame gave him a look of scorn, and 
even Sallie seemed haughtier after that 
speech. 

The National Guard fell back at last, going 
down the hill in good order, — a hill strewn 
with wounded, — and then James Osborne 
hurried on to the almost smoking field to do 
his duty. 

Edward King has given a description of 
a French battlefield (that of Champigny), so 
vivid and so truthful in the horror which 

presented itself to the faithful Red Cross man, that I can do no 
better than quote it here : — 




PRUSSIAN DRUMMER. 



" Great heaps of half-frozen dead, the bodies clinging to each other in the 
frosty atmosphere, — Saxon and Parisian, Prussian and Norman, Wurtemberger 
and Breton, — piled in indistinguishable masses together: such was the sight 
which met our eyes ! A young Prussian caught in the deadly hail of a bursting 
shell at the very moment that he was drawing his sword to cheer on his men, 



228 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

stood stark and dead, braced against a sapling, with his hand tightly clutching 
the iron cross which he wore at his breast." 

It was on this hill, while attempting to collect the forms which 
seemed to beckon to him in their agony, that James Osborne was 
stricken down. 

Melicent went to him as soon as possible. He was feverish, and 
suffering severely. His wound had been supposed to be slight, and 
he had insisted that others should have surgical attention before him ; 
and it was possible that he had waited too long and might have to 
lose his arm. Melicent was surprised to see that he was very anxious 
on this point. It seemed hardly like James Osborne to be so careful 
for his personal appearance or comfort. Other patients were given 
to her care, and she could see him only occasionally ; but Alice was 
with him several hours each day. When it was finally decided that 
the arm must be amputated, she saw a look of anguish come into his 
set face. " That ends the romance," he said bitterly. 

Afterward, when delirious, she gained from his wanderings that 
there was some one whom he had loved, whom now he would never 
dare to approach. She talked over the matter with Melicent, and 
both agreed that it seemed very strange to think of James Osborne 
as a lover ; he was such a quiet, grave, matter-of-fact fellow. 

" He always seemed different from other men," said Melicent. 
" I always felt at ease in his presence, as though he were a brother; 
perhaps because I felt, without knowing why, that he could never be 
more." 

After that, Melicent was very kind to the wounded man. Cruelly 
kind, it seemed to him, as he saw how much less reserved she was 
than formerly ; and the words which Jean Ingelow puts into Merton's 
mouth were often in his mind : — 

" No, give me coldness, pride, or still disdain. 
Gentle withdrawal. Give me anything 
But this, — a fearless, sweet, confiding ease. 
Whereof I may expect, I may exact. 



PEACE AND OTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 229 

Considerate care, and have it — gentle speech, 

And have it. Give me anything but this ! 

For they who give it, give it in the faith 

That I will not misdeem them, and forget 

My doom so far as to perceive thereby 

Hope of a wife. They make this thought too plain ; 

They wound me, — oh, they cut me to the heart ! " 

The girls had been so busy at the hospital that they had hardly 
given any heed to outside events. Clemence told them that Jules had 
sent her word that he was still safe ; but no one knew what would be 
the next event. The lower orders of the population became uneasy, 
and an attempt was made to establish the Commune. It was promptly 
quelled ; but the authorities understood that they had a lion within 
their gates as well as wild beasts without, and that lion was hungry. 
The bombardment, which had ceased for a few days, had begun again, 
and provisions were nearly exhausted. On the 26th of January it 
was whispered that Jules Favre had gone to Versailles to treat with 
Bismarck for an armistice. 

The next day Melicent read to James Osborne this proclamation 
from the Journal officie/ : — 

" In the present situation die Government is reduced to the necessity of 
negotiating. The negotiations are now taking place. The armistice has for 
its end the immediate reunion of a National Assembly. During the armistice 
the German army will occupy the forts ; but we shall keep our National Guard 
intact, and none of our soldiers shall be transported from our territory." 

" It is the beginning of the end," said James Osborne. " Every 
one knows that the negotiations referred to mean surrender, and 
it is a very bitter thing for the French. It will be hard for them 
to see the German tricolor at Valerien, but they have been fighting 
against an inexorable fate, and, humiliating though it may be, it 
means peace." 

Later, a proclamation was displayed signed by all the members of 
the Government, containing among other items the following : — 



230 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

Citizens, — The Convention which puts an end to the resistance of Paris is 
not yet signed, but it awaits only a few hours. 

There remains with us exactly enough bread to await the reprovisioning of 
the city. We could not prolong the struggle without condemning to certain 
death two millions of men, women, and children. 

The siege of Paris has lasted four months and twelve days ; the bombard- 
ment an entire month. Mortality has more than tripled. 

The enem}^ is the first to render homage to the energy and courage 
of the population of Paris. We leave the combat with honor, and, in spite 
of the grief of the present hour, with more faith than ever in the destiny of 
our country. 

Paris, Jan. 28, 1S71. 

James Osborne was right. In spite of wounded pride and much 
bitter disappointment, Paris was glad to welcome the approach of 
peace ; and perhaps no one was so glad to hear the word as the 
homesick German soldiers, who had been kept so long against their 
will from friends and Fatherland. There had been but one gala day 
at Versailles that winter, — the 19th of January, when the Imperial 
Crown was bestowed upon King William. He was made emperor of 
the united German nations on the anniversary of the crowning of 
Frederick the Great. The ceremony took place in the great hall 
of the palace, the reception-room of Louis XIV., before all the highest 
officials of the army. After the Emperor had taken his vow, Bismarck 
read the proclamation to the German people. This must have been 
the crowning moment of the great statesman's life ; for the unification 
of Germany was the one great task to which all his public labors had 
tended, with persistent, never-wearying aim, from the beginning of his 
career. 

Peace, to, the Prime Minister, was quite a secondary consideration. 
Captain Miiller also viewed the peace preparations with little enthu- 
siasm. He had fancied of late that Sallie seemed less cold and distant, 
and that if he could only have time he might advance to the footing 
of an intimate friend. But there was something in her clear eyes 



PEACE AND OTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 



231 



which held him sternly in check; and February, the month of the 
armistice, was the shortest of the year. The utmost good-will ex- 
isted now between many of the peasants and the German soldiers. 




"the GERMAN TRICOLOR AT VALERIEN." 

Sallie saw a peasant girl carrying mushrooms home in a Prussian 
helmet. She wondered whether it was a souvenir from some skirmish- 
field, or if the owner of this novel market-basket were possibly waiting 
for his dinner in Fifine's cottage. She thought rather scornfully of 
the lightness of the French character in beinor able to meet on oood 
terms men who had so recently been their mortal foes ; and her disdain 



232 THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 

came back with a rebound upon herself, for Captain Mliller strolled 
down the garden walk, and she knew that her feeling for him was 
anything but hatred. She half excused herself because she was not 
French, and promised to avoid him more rigorously in future. If 
Captain MiJller had but known that the secret of all Sallie's ill treat- 
ment lay in the fact that she really cared for him, it might have made 
him much more vainglorious than was for his good. Just now he 
was sufficiently presuming without that knowledge. He followed her 
with a desperate determination to have it out and over with. He over- 
took her looking with feigned interest at the shattered conservatory. 

" I did not know," she remarked, " that we had been bombarded at 
the villa." 

" It is the concussion of air from those heavy Krupp guns," the 
Captain replied. " You will soon be rid of them and of us. Colonel 
von Lindenthal tells me that the Emperor will review the troops on 
the ist of March in the Bois de Boulogne, and after that we may be 
ordered home any moment." 

" I congratulate you," Sallie said quietly. 

" Are you, then, so very glad to see us go .? " 

Sallie shrugged her shoulders in a pretty way, which she had un- 
consciously learned from the French people. " It does not sound polite 
to say so," she replied, "but I am heartily glad that it is over at last; 
and I am sure that you are, too. Captain Mliller." 

" You know that I am not," he burst forth angrily ; " or if you do 
not know it is time that you understood that, more than Fatherland, 
more than kindred, more than safety or health or life itself, I love you, 
Herzchen. This past month, in which I have suffered more bodily 
torture than in all my life put together, has been the happiest of my 
life. This hour of victory to our arms, which announces the close of a 
rigorous campaign and the return to home and comfort, is the greatest 
trial I have ever undergone, because it tears me from you, — because 
I love you, mein Herzchenr 



PEACE AND OTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 233 

He had spoken impetuously, rapidly ; and Sallie had been so taken 
by surprise that she could not find the right word to stop him ; but 
when he extended his arms she drew back. 

" Tell me only that I may come again, and that you will be my 
wife, 

' Wenn i' wiedrum komm'.' 

I will go to America for you, if you wish." 

" No, Captain Miiller," Sallie replied at last, " it cannot be. I can 
never marry a soldier. War is a terrible, a wicked thing to me. It 
has become more and more so every day as I have become familiar 
with its scenes. It is not only extremely repugnant to me in all its 
aspects, but I believe it to be actually wrong." 

" Is that a polite way of telling me that you do not love me .'* " the 
young man asked, deeply offended. 

" I did not say so," Sallie replied, with an effort. 

" Then I understand you merely wish to try your power over me 
to test my affection ; but pray understand what it is that you ask. I 
have been brought up for the army, educated and fitted for no other 
profession, and I have a fine position, with an income which will put 
us above want all our days. I hear that I am to be medalled ; that 
promotion is not impossible. You cannot wish me to relinquish all 
this for a mere whim, to make myself a pauper with no assured future 
to offer you. Why, I should so outrage my father's feelings that I 
believe he would disinherit me ; and I fancy that all my family would 
imagine that there must be some dishonorable reason at the bottom. 
See, Herzchen, I am willing to do anything you ask ; but you cannot 
ask this." 

" No, Captain Miiller," Sallie replied gently, " I have no right to 
ask it, and I do not. I see that it would be considered a disastrous 
mistake for a man in your position — " 

" Can you not respect me } " he asked pleadingly. " Do you 
not see that I regret all this misery, that I only do what I under- 



234 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



stand to be my duty? Am I such an assassin reeking with blood, 
after all ? " 

" Do not question me too closely," Sallie replied gravely. *' Your 
part in the past war has not seemed to me worthy of a brave and 
honorable man ; but I know that it was not your choice, and that you 
accepted it simply because it was assigned to you by your superiors. 

I blame you for nothing, Captain 
MiJller. I ask you to make no 
change for my sake. I do thor- 
oughly respect you ; but all the 
same, while you are a soldier I 
cannot marry you." 

" I do not understand you," said 
the young man, a gloomy scowl set- 
tling on his frank face. " You are 
either more determined to have your 
own way than any woman I ever saw, 
or else you are a heartless coquette." 
Sallie flushed crimson. " I am 
sorry you have such a poor opinion 
of me, Captain Miiller. You see we 
are not at all fitted for each other, 
since we cannot carry on so brief a 
conversation as this without quar- 
relling." She turned from him to 
go into the house; but a sudden pity seized her, and she came back 
down the long walk and laid her hand kindly on his arm. 
"Well.?" he asked moodily. 

" You will understand me better, sometime," she said. " Let us 
part as friends." 

" Friends ! " he replied, with a laugh. " No ; either more or less 
as you will, but not friends." 




MADAME SETS OUT FOR PARIS. 



PEACE AND OTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 237 

Sallie turned away with a little sigh ; it was all very hard. She 
was glad that he had no conception of how hard it was for her, and yet 
she was more and more upheld by the conviction that she had done 
right. Much as she now realized that she loved Captain Miiller, 
she could not become his wife and so give her life to sustaining 
and building up a career founded upon what she believed to be an 
iniquitous system. The future was dark before her, but she was cer- 
tain that God would not forsake her, since she had not forsaken 
Him. 

Madame was waiting for her in the salon. Colonel von Lindenthal 
had gained permission for her to enter Paris, and she had provided 
herself with a roll of pain d'epice for Jules, who since his boyhood 
had always been fond of this dainty. There was a passport for Sallie, 
too, and Lieutenant Schwarz was there with a carriage to conduct 
them to the city. Colonel von Lindenthal helped them in, and bade 
them a friendly farewell. 

" Should you ever visit Berlin, Fraulein," he said hospitably, " my 
wife will be most happy to entertain you." 

He touched his hat gallantly, the driver cracked his whip, and 
the carriage rolled down the Rue de Provence, past the Hotel des 
Reservoirs, where the Crown Prince had his headquarters, on to 
Paris. 

Sallie had taken her last look through the pretty iron grille of 
the Villa Beaumont ; and that look had searched in vain for Captain 
Miiller, who still stood behind the conservatory angrily grinding the 
gravel with his heel. Each thought that all was over between them, 
for neither at that time could foresee that in after years, in other lands 
and under happier circumstances, they would meet again. 

Sallie had requested to be left at the Maison Duval. Madame sat 
at her little counter unchanged, and greeted her rapturously. But 
there was no one upstairs, she said ; the ladies were all at the Ambu- 
lance Americaine. Thither Sallie took her way, discovering many 



238 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



changes as she walked, and yet surprised at not finding more. The 
French, with their faculty for making the best of every situation, were 
already adapting themselves to the circumstances ; and financiers were 
discussing how the two hundred million francs which Bismarck de- 
manded as a war indemnity were to be raised. The faces in the 
restaurant were not the full, well-fed diners-out of former days ; no 
bon vivants and gourmets discussing their petits soupers with merry 
jokes and stories. Men looked haggard and sober ; and in the streets 
she saw many people who she felt sure were starving. But charity 
was at work; and the first train which entered Paris brought pro- 
visions which London had contributed to its relief. 

At the American Hospital she was asked to wait but a few mo- 
ments, before Alice joined her. The two girls flew into each other's 
arms, held each other at arm's-length, and gazed into each other's faces. 

It was almost more than they could 
do, not to indulge in joyful shrieks. 

" I declare, you have been crying," 
Sallie whispered at last. 

" Yes," Alice replied ; " tears of joy 
over Melicent's happiness." 

" What has happened to Meli- 
cent.?" 

" Oh ! I forgot you have had no 
opportunity of knowing. She is en- 
gaged to James Osborne." 

" That is good news, certainly. 
How did it come about } " 

" I believe I had something to do 
with it," Alice replied modestly. " I saw that they misunderstood 
each other, and I determined that it was too blessed a thing not to 
happen, and some way, I scarcely know how, I gained his confidence, 
and one day he told me all about it ; and while he was telling me, 




M. BONIVANT BEFORE THE SIEGE. 



PEACE AND OTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 



239 



Melicent came in unobserved and stood at the head of the bed. He 
had just said, ' So that is the whole story. I love her with all my heart, 
but maimed as I am I will never ask her to be my wife.' She came 
right forward with a great light shining in her eyes. ' Then I shall 
have to ask you, James,' she said ; ' and now it is all right.' It is to be 
a long engagement; for Mr. Osborne is proud, and will not ask her 
to marry him until he can offer her a home." 

" And how many newspaper letters will it take to build a home?" 
Sallie asked, with a smile. 

" I have known homes to be raised on slighter foundations," Alice 
replied seriously. "James Osborne has done nothing as yet which 
has greatly distinguished him, but he has a sterling character. No 
woman need fear to trust her happiness to him; and some day, when 
those slow mills of the gods have ground up all the showy chaff of 
some other of our acquaintance, we shall be proud to have known 
him." 

Shortly after this the National Assembly convened at Bordeaux, 
signed the Peace Preliminaries, and on March 6th the German army 
took its departure. 

Mrs. Davenport and the Three Vassar Girls, finding themselves too 
much wearied to continue their labors during the summer, soon after 
crossed to the Isle of Wight, thus avoiding the terrible days of the 
Commune which soon followed. Before they left they had the pleasure 
of attending the marriage of Clemence with Jules de Beaumont. To 
every one's surprise the Countess seemed very desirous that it should 
take place ; and there was no question of the young people's emigrating 
to America. 

" They shall live at Villa Beaumont," said Madame; "for how is it 
possible that we should separate ourselves from them ; and there is 
more than ever a future for Jules in France, since by this marriage he 
allies himself with the people. Who knows but we shall all see him 
some day a member of the Corps Legislatif ? " 



240 



THREE VASSAR GIRLS IN FRANCE. 



To have heard Madame talk on the wedding day, one would have 
fancied that this marriage had been from the first the dearest object of 
her heart, and that the young people in no way owed their happiness 
to Three Vassar Girls in France. 




J^ Mi 



y^ 



I^TSl 



Q- 



^^ * , . o ^ ^0-' 









<\ r 



■ ^ 



~ ' r. V -^ A , -^ , ''' 









#'%, 



\ I B 



< . -^ , V ~*^ .-^ 




V 



:^ V 



^^ 



.iS^ 






Oo. 



o -- t 



^^^ '-^ ^ 



\ 



N' A '■ '.■ 



is^ 



Oo, 



.n 






^.^^^ ■' o'' ^>?--^ 













■> 






vO o. 





I- -^ 


,-(/ 


•^ ^n;- 


/. 


" 8 


1 1 " 


^\^^ 


c 






\' , 


/ 




.^^^ 


'^' 



V- ^' 






.^-^ '••^^ '- 



f-Zft^ 






c\^" 



' o V . ^ ., ^ 









,^V c ° ^ '^^ -9 













'^^J^'^ J" 









.-^e. ^-- .>^\- . ^ * 




,0 o 



^^^^'\\^liV' 



o 



■^ N " ^> 






^^f/h/. ^x, ,/■ 



l'-^. '^^^ 



iX"^ ^ . S. -fei 

















C^^. 









x:^ -%. ^. 



,S' 



,0 o : '■j^'^^A 



h \ ''''^' c^^ 



^'^ 



c^ -^ ^ Cii^ 






-X-' 



'V> ,»;X^' - Jf=4lii|ii^^ '_ '<^ '^'' « I< 



\X^' .. ^"^^ *o.o^ aQ^ ^, , 



'^"M^S ■<^\ 






5 1 %c<^ 



., ■'''-\\x' 


^ " "^ '■ « 


. = xO c-^. 









x.'-'^ . 



-. -A. - -M* 




" = X^ ^.. 



X 













9/, * a 1 \ ■■■ \X- 



%,.^ 



^^ 



' '/ 






-^^"^ 



•0 



C' 



.',0 



,•0' 



^' -. 






xO°x. 



"-^^ 






•,v 



J n 






% <^^" 
.#% 



'o„\-^;v 



:?■ x%/r^^ 



• xV 



^v^ 



'^o o"^ 



■>'^f>\ 



^^^ v^ 



X^^x. 



Ci_ 



"O , 



V 



%,<^' 



,\V <^. 






' »' 8 I ^ '^ X'^ 



.<^ ^i- 



xO°^. 






V. .^^ 






^c^. 






,0o 



.^^ 



?5 -n^. 



\'\- 



^-^^ 



v\^ 



\^ 



0°. 






.."^ 



.^ <^. 



■'o 



^y^ v^ 



,r'< 






■* ,\ 



..\^ 



'o. 



'^o^ 



R^ -n.. 



* 8 1 



"^. 



A^^ 



L-^-' 



'\/^'. 



* ^* 




